Beacon of the Iron Palace
by itachikage
Summary: Kazuto and Suguha become trapped in the death game of Sword Art Online. As they struggle to survive, a new guild emerges for the sake of protecting every player fighting to clear the game. With some new and unexpected allies, can they clear all 100 floors, or will they die trying?
1. Link Start

**Beacon of the Iron Palace**

I'm uploading this story in honor of Monty Oum, the creator of RWBY who passed away a few weeks ago.

R.I.P Monty. You will be missed.

Before we start, just so you know, for the sake of the story, Kazuto never found out that Suguha wasn't his sister, so they never drifted apart. It'll start SAO centric, but that'll change within the first few chapters.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or RWBY. I'm simply a fanfic writer who happens to like both fandoms and can't help but feel he doesn't have enough crossovers to write...

* * *

The school bell finally rang, and Kazuto Kirigaya jumped to his feet and ran for the door. He couldn't keep the smile off his face. Finally, the day had arrived. Sword Art Online was launching in just an few hours.

"Kazuto!" A voice said from behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to see his sister Suguha running after him.

"Sugu!" He smiled back at her, "You ready?"

"Yup. " she smiled, "I knew that you'd try and run home without me."

"I'm sorry." He replied, surprised to see her keeping pace with him, "Don't you have kendo practice?"

"I'm a quarter finalist." She answered, "I think I can skip one day without any problems."

"But shouldn't you-" He started, but she casually moved her hand to the shinai on her back.

"What's up?" she asked sweetly, but he just shook his head and started running again with her right behind him.

"Sugu, is your NerveGear set up?" Kazuto asked as he wrote a note to their mom.

"Yeah, I took care of it last night." she replied, running up the stairs, "See you on the other side?

"Yeah!" he answered, charging after her. The NerveGear was already set up next to his bed, and Sword Art Online was already loaded. By now, Sugu was probably already creating her character. Since he wouldn't need to, he just laid down and put the NerveGear on his head before finally saying the words he'd longed to say all day. "Link Start!"

The familiar ceiling of his room disappeared as a multitude of colors passed before his eyes, and the NerveGear connected itself to all of his senses before he loaded the account he had in the Beta period, 'Kirito'. The world flashed gold and reformed as the familiar town of beginnings.

All around him, hundreds of people were loading in, and most of them were standing in awe of the virtual world around them. After looking himself, he hurried forward past the group to stand by the entrance to the main street, his predetermined meeting place for Suguha. Though she wasn't a beta player, it should be easy enough for her to find him here. Much easier than trying to find each other in the mob of people inside the starting plaza.

"Yo!" Someone said behind him, but instead of his sister, he saw it was a man. He was wearing a red and yellow bandanna tied around his head, and a single hand raised in greeting, "You know your way around?"

"Well, yeah." Kirito answered, "Why? What's up?"

"Any chance that you could show me around?" He bowed timidly, "It's my first day and... well the city's kinda overwhelming."

"Yeah sure." Kirito replied with a small smile, "Believe me, it took me ages to get the know the layout."

"So, you're one of the beta testers after all?" The man said in awe, "Man, that's amazing."

"I know. I couldn't believe it either." He laughed, "Anyway, I'd be happy to give you a hand. Just let me wait for my sister and we-"

"You have a sister!?" He roared, "Dude, are you serious?! Think you could introduce us?!"

"Well, I don't-" Kirito stuttered, looking around for a moment until he sees someone else walking towards him. A blond haired girl dressed in a green dress with a one handed sword at her waist.

"Sorry for the wait." She said, raising her hand.

"it's cool. I've only been here a few minutes anyway." he waved back, "Blond though? I didn't think you'd change your hair color."

"Yeah, well, I felt like something different." she shrugged, looking from Kirito to the other guy, "And who's this?"

"Ah, him." Kirito said, "I almost forgot about him. This is-" He turned toward him as he realized that he'd never gotten his name, but evidently, he wasn't in any shape to answer. His eyes were wide as he stared at Sugu, and his lip was quivering pathetically.

Finally, after a few seconds, Klein bowed and stuttered out, "I-IamKlein!" He said too fast to actually be understood.

"Sorry?" Both Kirito and Suguha said at the same time.

"I-I'm Klein." He said again, extending his hand towards Suguha,

"Leafa." She said, nervously taking his hand while looking to Kirito for help.

"And I'm Kirito." He added, but Klein made no effort to shake his hand.

"Leafa..." Klein repeated to himself without acknowledging Kirito's response before he grinned stupidly, "I mean, if you ever wanted to do anything IRL..."

"No." She said immediately and so viciously that Kirito couldn't help but wince. It was moments like these that made him glad that, as her brother, he'd never have to try and ask her out.

"Oh." Klein muttered before letting go of her hand and sighing, "Well, shall we get going? I mean, we're not enjoying the game just standing here, are we?"

"Let's go." Kirito chuckled, "we'll start with boars just outside the city."

"Sounds easy." Klein smirked before grinning and winking at Sugu, "If you run into trouble though, I'll protect you."

"My hero..." Leafa said, rolling her eyes at Klein's reply.

* * *

"Ah!" Klein shouted as one of the boars rammed into him and his hp decreased by a small margin.

"Come on." Kirito said as he stopped the boar's follow-up attack with his sword, "This thing's not that strong. Just relax and use the sword skills. It'll die pretty easily after that."

"Easy for you to say..." Klein sighed, getting up, "But I just don't seem to get it."

"Look, watch me." Kirito said, picking up a pebble from the ground and holding it over his shoulder, "Just start the motion, and let the system take control. After that, you pretty much can't miss." Demonstrating, he allowed the system to take over, and the throwing skill 'Single Shot' sent the pebble flying until it collided with the boar.

"You make it sound easy." Klein muttered, getting back up and pointing his sword at the now enraged boar, "But what about her?"

Kirito looked over his shoulder and Leafa who was easily out matching them without sword skills. "Don't mind her." He answered, "She could do that IRL, so it's to be expected."

"Shall I demonstrate?" She called out after killing yet another boar.

"No, we're good!" Klein whimpered, before jumping aside to dodge the boar's charge and almost accidentally using the one-handed curved sword skill 'Reaver'. The boar's hp dropped significantly and a quick swing later, it was finally defeated.

"Yeah!" Klein cheered as he received the drops consisting of a tiny amount of Col and boar hide.

"I don't think it's something you should be celebrating." Kirito said, "I mean, these are about as weak as slimes in other games, you know?"

"No way!" Klein gasped, "I thought it was some kind of mid-level field boss or something!"

"No way." Kirito grinned.

"Well, that wasn't too hard." Leafa said, walking towards them, "Kirito, I just leveled up!"

"Wait..." Klein groaned, "So, in the time it took me to kill one boar..?"

"That was even faster than I was expecting." Kirito grinned, "Now you're ahead of me too. I'd better get training. Otherwise, you'll get the better of me."

"Like you could ever beat me." She said, sticking her tongue out at him.

"Well, I'll leave you guys to it." Klein sighed, "I'd love to stay and hang out, but I'm starting to get a little hungry."

"Damn." Kirito smirked, "So, you done for the day?"

"No way!" Klein replied eagerly, "How the hell could I be? I'm just leaving for some pizza. I planned ahead and ordered it for 5:30!"

"Why didn't you think of that!?" Leafa glared at Kirito, "Now not only will I have to be the one who makes food, but we won't be back for WAY longer!"

"Well sorry." Kirito replied cheekily, "But would you have paid for it? 'Cause it seems to me that SOMEONE didn't have enough for Sword Art Online and had to borrow from me. Who was that again..?"

"That's..." She muttered, blushing slightly.

"I rest my case." Kirito answered simply.

"Well, you guys want to meet up later?" Klein asked, "I was planning to meet with a few of my pals from another game. Wanna come with?"

Kirito and Leafa shared a look before he shook his head, "Nah, I think we're good. I'm heading to a nearby town to see if I can earn a bit more exp. I can't see her beating THOSE monsters without skills."

"I beg to differ." Leafa said, swatting his arm playfully, "I'll show you. Bet I can beat the first boss without Skills."

"Doubt it." He countered, before turning back to Klein, "Well, if you need any help, message me, Alright?"

"Sure." he nodded, opening the system menu. Leaving him to log out, Kirito and Leafa turned to walk away until they heard him behind them, "Huh?"

"What's up?" Kirito asked, looking questioningly at him.

"There's no log out." He answered, pointing at the menu, "Or am I missing something?"

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked, bringing up his own menu, "It's right-" He stopped dead when, at the bottom of the menu, there was no log out button. Beside him, his sister opened her menu, and was also looking at him with a confused look. "This isn't right." Kirito shook his head, "Where is it..?"

"Man, they've gotta be freaking out." Klein chuckled, "I mean, I was expecting a few bugs, but not something like this, ya know?"

"That should be the least of your problems." Kirito said, "Check the time."

Klein looked at the corner of his menu and his face paled, "NO! My teriyaki and mayo pizza and Ginger Ale!"

"Did you try contacting the GM?" Kirito asked, pressing the contact button on his console.

"Yeah, I did, but he's not picking up." Klein answered, tapping the contact button again, "Is there any other way to log out?"

"the only way for a player to log out is through the main menu." Kirito shook his head, "Other than that, the only way is for someone to remove your NerveGear in the real world."

"Well, I live alone. You?" He asked.

"We live with our mom, but she won't be home for a couple of hours..." Leafa answered, "couldn't they... I don't know, shut it down and log us out that way?"

"Of course they could." Kirito nodded, "But it's the fact that they aren't that worries me. Having players unable to log out can cause some serious problems."

"Then why isn't anything-" Leafa started, but was interrupted by the sound of bells ringing in the distance. Suddenly, Kirito felt a familiar sensation. The fields around the starting city disappeared as he was teleported to the main stadium of the city. All around him, countless of people were also teleporting in. Klein and Leafa were there as well.

"What's going on?" A player asked from somewhere nearby.

"Is this part of the game?" Another asked.

"Maybe it's about the log out button?" A third suggested.

"We're about to find out." Kirito muttered as a red system warning spread across the sky.

A bloody liquid started leaking from the sky, forming into a massive hooded figure without a face.

"Attention, players." The being said calmly, raising both of its arm, "Welcome to my world. I am Akihiko Kayaba. And as of right now, I am taking control of this world."

All around them, the players started talking amongst themselves after his proclamation, but he showed no signs of halting his speech.

"I'm sure most of you have noticed that something is missing from the main menu. The log out button." He said, bringing up his own menu and lightly tapping the last space that should have been the log out button, "I assure you, this is by no means a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect. This is how Sword Art Online was meant to be."

"This guy can't be serious!" Klein said softly, "Can he?"

"From now on, no one can log themselves out of Sword Art Online. And no one on the outside will be able to shut down the game. Should anyone attempt to do so, a signal will be sent to your NerveGear, and a powerful microwave emitter will destroy your brain, and end your life."

"No way..." The players around them said in voices that ranged from fear to disbelief. Kirito narrowed his eyes.

"He can't be serious, right?" Klein asked him, "Right, Kirito?"

"It's possible." Kirito answered finally, and Leafa gasped next to him, "The transmitters in the NerveGear work just like microwaves. A strong enough surge could..."

"But that's just insane!" Klein shouted, "Couldn't they just cut the power?"

"Thirty percent of the nerve gear's weight is from an internal battery." Kirito replied, "That much juice would be more than enough."

"That's... That's just..." Klein said at an utter lose for words.

Kayaba continued speaking after allowing a few moments for the players to absorb that information, "Unfortunately, several concerned friends and family have ignored my warnings and attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, there are two hundred and thirteen less players than when the game began. They were deleted both from that world and this one."

"Over two hundred..." Kirito gulped, and Leafa was hanging off him, seemingly too weak to stand on her own.

"News media around the world has round-the-clock coverage of everything, including the deaths. As a result, I believe the odds of any NerveGear being removed now is minimal at best. I'm sure that will keep your mind at ease as you worry about clearing the game."

All around him, multiple windows opening, showing what seemed to be news feeds from multiple channels showing the face of several of those two hundred and thirteen, as well as the grieving families. Kirito clutched his fist in frustration at the thought that his mother would be just as worried about both him and Sugu.

"Keep in mind, however, that there is no longer any way to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system forever, and the NerveGear will simultaneously destroy your brain. If you wish to leave the game, you have only one choice. If you defeat the final boss on floor one hundred, you will clear the game, and all remaining players will be logged out."

"That's bullshit!" One of the players behind Kirito shouted loudly, "Everything you're talking about is absolute bullshit!"

"He... he couldn't actually be telling the truth could he..?" Klein asked weakly.

"I'd say he is." Kirito said, looking at the faceless figure in the sky, "Everything he's saying is possible, and I can't think of any reason for him to do all of this unless its true..."

"Finally, I've given each of you a gift." Kayaba said after the protesting had calmed somewhat.

Quickly, Kirito opened his menu and navigated to the inventory screen. The only object present was a mirror. Materializing it, he saw that Leafa had somehow mustered the strength to open her own, and was clutching the mirror tightly enough that it probably would've broken in real life.

The mirror started emitting a bright blue light that soon engulfed him, and both Leafa and Klein also became surrounded by the same light. After a moment, it cleared and he realized something.

"S-Sugu?!" He said, looking at his little sister who was still clinging to his arm.

"Kazuto?" She asked, eyes wide in surprise, "But... how is it..?"

"Kirito, Leafa?" Klein asked, and they saw he'd changed as well, though not nearly as drastically as either of them.

"What the hell happened to you?" Klein asked.

"What about you?" Kirito replied, before looking at his own mirror, and his own face.

His real face.

"The scan." he realized, "The NerveGear can take a full scan of our faces! But how'd it get our body types?"

"When I calibrated it earlier, I had to touch my body all over." Klein answered, and Leafa weakly nodded as well, "Could that..?"

"Yeah, that's it." Kirito nodded, having completely forgotten about that after over three months.

"But why in the hell is he doing this?!" Klein asked, practically pulling his hair out in frustration.

"I think he's about to tell us." Kirito said, pointing back to the sky while he gave his sister a comforting squeeze.

"I'm sure you're wondering to yourself 'why?'. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of NerveGear and Sword Art Online do this? In the end, my goal was simple. I wanted to control the fate of a world of my design. And I succeed."A chilling silence spread over the crowd at Kayaba's declaration.

"This marks the end of the tutorial." Kayaba said, "Players, I wish you all the best of luck."

The figure slowly started to dissolve despite the roaring protests from the players inside the stadium, and with it gone, the sky returned to normal almost immediately.

'I get it.' Kirito thought angrily. 'I've looked up to him for so long, I know. He wasn't making it up. It's the truth!'

With Kayaba gone, the players started to panic. Still supporting his sister, Kirito grabbed Klein by the sleeve and whispered, "Come on, we'd better go."

"Kirito-" Klein started, but he dragged him out of the stadium and into a nearby alley.

"Look, we've got to go." Kirito started quickly, bringing up his menu and with it the map of the explored areas of floor one, "In an MMO, resources like money and exp will be limited. We need to get ahead of the others. I know the best hunting spots on the floor. I can get us there safely, even if I'm level one, it shouldn't be any problem. I want you to come along."

"Kirito..." Klein sighed, "I wish I could, but my friends are still back there. I need to help them."

'It'll be hard enough with Sugu and me.' Kirito said mentally, 'Even bringing Klein along is a risk. Bringing another player would be...'

"Sorry." Klein said sheepishly, "I can't ask you guys to put yourselves at risk for my buddies. Kirito, you get Leafa out of here, alright? Look after her. I'll make sure my buddies are safe, so don't you worry about it. Just get going."

"Klein..." Kirito said, "Alright. Be careful, okay? If you need a hand, message me, alright?"

"Sure." He nodded, and Kirito turned to leave when Klein stopped him, "Kirito!" Turning back, Klein sheepishly said, "You guys look better this way. And Leafa's way cuter."

"Well, as a big brother, I'll never let my sister anywhere near you." He smirked back before he and Leafa hurried towards the fields, leaving Klein looking somewhat disappointed.

* * *

So, that's the first chapter. RWBY characters will play a much bigger role starting next chapter. So, anyone have any comments? Concerns? Constructive Criticism? I'll take them all as reviews. Look for the next chapter some time over the next few days. Until than, review!


	2. Beaters

RWBY 2

Well, as you might have guessed, this chapter has the first floor boss fight! I changed the ending to be a bit of a mix between the anime and SAO Progressive, and obviously the RWBY characters make their debut. Read on, and let see what you guys think.

Disclaimer: I don't own SAO or RWBY. I just need something to do to pass my abundance of free time.

* * *

"Let's settle in, everyone!" The leader of the boss conference called out after the players stopped filling in, "Thank you all for coming. My name is Diavel, and the job I rolled is Knight!"

"Dude, you realize there's no jobs in SAO, right?" One of the guys next to him asked with a slight grin.

"So what?" He countered, "I'm a knight, and that's that."

Several of the players around them started to laugh along with him, though neither Kirito nor Leafa were among them.

Diavel suddenly became serious and said, "Earlier, my party and I found the boss's lair on the highest floor of the labyrinth." Everyone collectively drew a breath, and he continued, "Now, obviously, we can't beat the boss on our own, and all of you guys are the best players we have. We have to clear this floor! Not only to clear the game, but to show everyone hiding in the town of beginnings that we CAN clear this game!"

The raid group cheered excitedly in response, and it took several minutes for Diavel to regain control.

"So, I want each of you to group up into parties of six." he continued, and the other plays quickly started breaking off into small groups with their friends, "We'll distribute the col equally amongst everyone, the party that gets the kill gets the exp, and anyone who gets an item gets to keep it. Are there any questions?"

"So, we're together, I assume?" Kirito asked Leafa as the others voiced their affirmative.

"Of course." she replied.

"And it wouldn't do me any good to-" Kirito started before Leafa's hand drifted menacingly to the hilt of her sword. "Right." he finished, "So, who else is available?"

"Almost no one because of that stupid suggestion." Leafa responded, "Just them."

Kirito followed her line of sight to a group of three girls, one black hair, one blond, and a younger girl with a red hood pulled up. A blond haired boy dressed in mostly starter equipment and a girl with long red hair pulled back into a ponytail formed another team. The last figure was sitting far in the back, her face hidden behind a hood. The pair seemingly joined up with the trio, which left only the lone person at the top of the stands.

"Them?" Kirito asked, pointing towards them, "Or did you want to sp-" The hand again drifted menacingly to her sword as she stood up and approached the other. "That answers that..." he sighed, following a step behind her, "When did SHE become the older one?"

"I've always been older." she replied, before smiling at the still seated figure, "Hi."

The figure hardly acknowledged her, aside from a small nod. After a second, Leafa continued, "Want to team with us?"

"I wouldn't want to intrude." they replied softly, "Don't mind me."

"It's no intrusion." Leafa replied, elbowing him in the ribs and whispering, "Send the request, Kirito."

"Yeah, I'm doing it." he muttered, opening the menu and navigating until he sent them a party invitation.

"Why would you want to team up with me?" they asked, neither accepting nor refusing the request.

"Because I'd be somewhat bothered if you died because you didn't have some help." Kirito answered, "And besides, you wouldn't be able to participate unless you joined a party, right?"

Nodding slightly, she accepted the request. Just beneath Leafa's name, the name 'Asuna' appeared in the corner of Kirito's screen.

"Well, we'd better listen to whatever he's got to say." Leafa said, sitting beside Asuna and Kirito sat at her other side.

"So, we'll meet at the city gates tomorrow at-" Diavel started before being rudely interrupted.

"Hold on a sec." A loud and obnoxious voice said from the opposite side of the stands. Standing on the upper edge was a man with spiky brown hair and a sword strapped to his back. Looking around at all of them, he runs down the stands until he's standing beside Diavel, than turns back to them and shouted, "The name's Kibaou! And before we continue, there's something I need to get off my chest! Everyone knows about the two thousand people who died, and some of you need to apologize to them right now!"

Kirito stiffened, already knowing exactly what he was about to say.

"Kibaou." Diavel said, "I know who you mean. I'm sure you're talking about the Beta Testers, right?"

"Of course I mean them!" He shouted, "The first day, those beta's just left all us beginners behind! They stole the best hunting spots, the easy quests, and left us to fend on our own! They need to get down here and beg for forgiveness! Than they should give up their money and equipment, and see how they like being the weak ones! Why in the hell should we trust them when they won't trust us!?"

Kirito was shaking slightly as Kibaou listed off things that he'd done just to make sure that he and Sugu could survive. Before he could determine whether, he should speak up, however, someone else did for him.

"You a beta tester?" Kibaou growled.

"No, I'm not." A familiar voice answered him, "I'm a beginner just like you. The difference is that I'm not stupid enough to try and place the blame on someone else."

'Sugu...' Kirito realized as his little sister stormed down and confronted the beta hater.

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Kibaou roared, "It's their fault that all those people died! How many do you think could've been saved if the beta's had tried to help, huh?!"

"Maybe you're right." She admitted, "But do you really think that every single person that died was a beginner? More than that, I didn't see you out there helping the beginners either. Clearly if you got this far and so many other beginners got this far, the beta didn't steal everything, did they?"

The rest of the groups starting muttering in response between them, and the raid group seemed to be watching the exchange with interest.

"What does that have to do with anything!?" Kibaou shouted back, "None of that changes the fact that the betas up and ditched us!"

"So, you helped every single person in the starting city?" Leafa asked with a mocking voice, "Because I don't think you can speak for every single one of the eight thousand surviving players, can you? Maybe the beta's did help the beginners. Don't go spouting nonsense because no one wanted to help an immature brat like you."

The group broke out laughing at Leafa's response, and Kibaou's face flushed.

"Y-You!" He growled, opening a menu for a second before a window appeared in front of her. A duel challenge.

"Hold on." Diavel said, stepping between them in a failed attempt to make peace.

"No need." She replied, setting the duel to first strike and accepting, "This won't take long."

The duel countdown appeared above them, and Kibaou drew his sword with ease. Leafa likewise had her sword pointed towards him.

"So much for keeping it peaceful..." Diavel sighed, stepping back and out of the line of fire.

"Leafa!" Kirito said, running down to stand next to her.

"Don't worry." she smirked, "This won't take long."

The instant that the countdown hit zero, Kibaou shot forward, his sword covered in a yellow light that Leafa recognized as 'Slant'. Stepping backwards, she dodged the attack and stepped past him, slashing at point blank range. The duel ended with her victory.

"And just think." she said as Kibaou fumed, "I didn't even see the need to use a sword skill. Thanks though. I'm sure some other player benefited from a beta's knowledge more than you ever could."

"Now hold on." Another voice interrupted as Kibaou opened his menu again. Leafa look to the side to see a large bald man with a two-handed axe on his back, "The name's Agil, nice to meet you. Before you make a fool yourself again, maybe you should take a look at this."

He removed leather bound book from the pouch on his hip, "recognize it?" he asked Kibaou, "It's the guide book. They were giving them away at all the item shops."

"'course I know it." Kibaou muttered, his face red from embarrassment, "What's your point?"

"My point is who do you think wrote it?" Agil asked, "And who do you think keeps it up to date? Who do you think has the knowledge to write it? And rather than charging for it, they distribute it to the NPCs so everyone can have access to it. And every single person had equal access to this information, isn't that right? But despite that, people still died, and like the little lady said-" he inclined his head slightly to Leafa, "I seriously doubt that every one of them was a beginner. More than a few beta testers are probably crossed off the Memorial stone right now. Now, I'm not about to start pointing fingers here. They're all dead, but we're not. I'm planning to live through this game by learning from their deaths, and to make sure that we can all make it through this boss fight, got it?"

Kibaou glared angrily at Leafa, but stormed off to sit on the first row of the stands. Agil looked over to Leafa, "And you?"

"I made my point." she replied, walking back over to Kirito, "How'd I do?"

"You kicked ass." He smiled, "Not bad for your first duel."

"Better than yours." She grinned playfully.

"Lies." Kirito protested.

"Keep telling yourself that." she chuckled as they returned to their seats.

"Good fight..." Asuna said softly after everything quieted down.

"Thanks." Leafa smiled at her.

"Now that that's out of the way, let's get back on track." Diavel cleared his throat, "Now then, I'd like for all of you to review the latest issue of the guidebook that Agil just mentioned, as it contains all the relevant information about the boss. We're meeting tomorrow morning by the east gate. Everyone, make sure that you're stocked up on potions, and that your gears ready. See you guys in the morning."

With that, the raid party slowly broke up into individual parties for the night.

* * *

As they gathered around the fountain in town square, Kirito turned to their new teammate and gave a small smile, "So, are you hungry?"

"I'm fine." She answered stiffly.

"Well, you can't fight without eating something." Leafa protested, "Kirito, I'm going to get some food. Any special requests?"

"Something sweet." He replied eagerly, and she ran off towards the center of town.

Kirito and Asuna sat silently by the fountain while the others around them chatted happily about the upcoming boss raid.

"So..." Kirito said, breaking the tension, "Why are you solo?"

"What do you mean?" She asked him after a moment.

"Well, I guess I was wondering why you play solo. It's much safer to join a party." Kirito asked, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Maybe..." Asuna muttered, "But I'm fine on my own. That way, I don't have to worry about dragging everyone around me down. All I want is to move forward. Even if I end up getting killed along the way. I'd rather fight to the end."

Kirito couldn't help but think that if he didn't have Sugu with him, he'd probably do something similar.

"Sorry for the wait." Leafa said while Kirito was trying to decide what to say. Manipulating the menu, she brought out a couple of leather bags. "The shopkeeper had a special, so I bought a few."

"Well, what are they?" Kirito asked, opening one of the bags. Inside were a dozen sugar cookies.

"Cookies." She answered, handing one of the bags to Asuna, "Here's yours."

"...Thanks." Asuna said, taking the bag.

"Asuna, if we're going to be in a party, we'll need to know each other's skills." Leafa asked, and Asuna looked up.

"I guess, but how'd you know my name?" She asked, snacking on one of the cookies.

"Look up in the left hand corner of your display." Leafa said, "See the HP gauges? Right next to them are two names, right?"

"Leafa?" Asuna read, then turned to him, "And Kirito?"

"That's us." Kirito shrugged.

"Be sure to keep an eye on the gauges so that you know when to switch." Leafa added, "Anyway, I'm Leafa. My weapon's a curved sword."

"Mine's a plain old sword." Kirito said, pointing to the sword strapped to his back.

"I use a rapier." Asuna said simply.

"Okay..." Leafa shrugged when it was clear that Asuna wasn't about to open up any more than that. Turning back to Kirito, she saw that there was a black haired girl with red highlights standing just behind him, looking longingly down at the bag of cookies on his lap. Leafa recognized her as one of the people from the boss raid conference.

"Can we help you?" Leafa asked, and the girl jumped in surprise.

"Um... Hi." She said nervously, "So, you're going to be in the boss raid tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we are." Kirito answered after recovering from the shock of her seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

"Really? Us too." She said eagerly, "So what do you think the boss is going to be like?"

"Some kind of ogre..." Kirito yawned, and Leafa elbowed him in the ribs.

"Or at least that's what we heard." She said quickly, but it didn't help.

The girl's eyes widened, and she whispered, "Are you one of the beta testers?"

"Yeah..." Kirito winced at his mistake, "Though I'd appreciate it if you'd keep that a secret, okay?"

"Sure!" She nodded, "But there's a price!"

"How much do you want?" Leafa sighed. Thankfully, she and Kirito had more than enough col to buy her silence, however much she wanted.

"those!" She answered eagerly, pointing at the bag of cookies in her hand, "I want some of those!"

"That's it?" Leafa asked dumbly before shaking her head and handing her two bags, "Is that enough?"

"Sure!" She said, opening one of the bags and cramming half a dozen into her mouth. After eating a second mouthful, she taped the other bag and placed it into her storage, "I'm Ruby, by the way."

"Leafa." she introduced herself, "And he's my brother, Kirito."

"Really!?" Ruby said happily, "My sister's here too." Turning around, she called out, "Yang, come here!"

The blonde from earlier looked up, said a few words to her three teammates and walked over to them.

"What's up?" She asked, looking around.

"These guys gave me cookies!" Ruby said, holding the open bag towards her, "Here, you can have some!"

Yang looked at her and sighed, "I'm sorry that she's so rude. How much col was it?"

"Don't worry about it." Leafa chuckled, waving her off, "I was just telling her about how I'm here with my brother, and she mentioned that she had a sister."

"Is he your brother?" Yang asked, looking at Kirito who was leaning backwards and looking up at the sky.

"Yeah." Leafa sighed, "I promise he's more capable than he looks."

"Her too." Yang said, jerking her finger at Ruby, "Why is it that little siblings are so troublesome?"

"Good question." Kirito said without looking up, and jumped back to avoid Leafa's retaliation.

"So you guys are fighting tomorrow?" Leafa asked Yang.

"Sure are." She nodded, "Actually, we were about to head back to the inn when Ruby started stalking your cookies."

"Yeah, we were getting ready to head back too." Leafa answered her, holding Kirito by the collar, "See you tomorrow?"

"Sure thing." Yang said, dragging Ruby away, "Don't get killed tomorrow."

"You too." Leafa waved her off before taking Asuna and Kirito back to the farmhouse where they'd rented a room.

* * *

The next morning, Kirito lead the party back to the east gate, where a large group of players gathered for what would be the first of many boss raids. Diavel looked over and waved to them as soon as they arrived, though Kibaou who was next to him glared at Leafa. Leafa just smiled and waved back at them, which only served to anger the small club wielder.

Ruby's team had already arrived as well, and Yang raised her small dagger in greeting to them while she discussed strategy with the other four.

"Will a dagger like that really be enough for a boss?" Leafa asked Kirito after they'd taken a seat along the city wall.

"During the beta, there were a few dagger users on the upper floors." Kirito replied, "The range might not be very effective, but it's probably the best weapon for pinpoint attacks on the enemy weak points."

"Still, that seems awfully dangerous..." Leafa said worriedly, "At that range, there won't be enough time for her to switch out before she's attacked."

"Yeah, I know." Kirito nodded. What he didn't tell her was that more often than not, the dagger users in boss raids didn't make it to the end. They were able to deal lots of damage, but because of their reliance on speed, a single attack would reduce their HP to zero. It was the attack style favored by the ones seeking a high-risk-high-reward playing style. And it was probably the last thing he expected to see in a death game.

"Alright, everyone!" Diavel called out once the last of the groups had finished preparing, "Now, we're going to have to pass through the dungeon to reach the boss, but with this many people, there shouldn't be any problems. Everyone have enough healing potions?" With a murmur of agreement from the group, Diavel lead them into the dungeon.

The first few floors of the dungeon were nearly effortless. With nearly fifty people, the monsters dissolved into polygons before Kirito could even get within attacking range. It wasn't until they reached the middle point that they encountered any problems. The torches that lit the floor were extinguished, leaving the area crawling with monsters concealed by the pitch darkness.

"What the hell is going on?!" One of Diavel's party members shouted after the third sneak attack left one party having to heal, "The torches were lit yesterday!"

"maybe it's a trap?" Another called out, and the raid group was on the verge of collapse.

"Everyone, shut up!" A new voice shouted loudly, drawing all of their attention, "Look, I got a night vision skill from a quest! I can lead us from here on!"

"What quest!?" Several players roared at her.

"All you need to know is that I can get us through here!" She called back, "Just go straight ahead! The path is about a hundred feet ahead!"

While the group protested, Diavel quieted the argument. "Let's go!"

With Diavel leading the way, they followed her directions up the stair case and back to the torchlight.

"Awesome." Diavel praised, turning back to face the rest of the group, "Who had the night vision?"

No one spoke up, and everyone looked around to try and find the person who might have saved the expedition. Several minutes passed without anyone fessing up, so Diavel cleared his throat, "Well, wohever it was, thank you from the bottom of my heart. The boss is on the next floor up, so we're almost there!"

Spurred on by his optimism, the raid group stormed the final level like a tempest, ripping through the mobs that stood between them and the boss room. Ten minutes later, they climbed the final stairway and sat to rest outside the boss room.

"Good work so far." Diavel said once they were ready to leave, "Now, let's go win this thing!"

"YEAH!" The group roared along with him, and charged the room.

The boss, Illfang the Kobold Lord, jumped from his throne and let out a roar, causing the Ruin Kobold Sententials to spawn around them. Kirito and Leafa, as the smallest group, broke away from the rest to stop them from attacking the rest of the raid.

"Kirito, Switch!" Leafa called out, deflecting the sword and jumping backwards. Her brother dashed past her and split the sentential in two. With a quick breather between the battles, they both looked around. The other group of sententials were fighting with Yang and Ruby's team. Yang's dagger was causing devastating damage with every strike, but as he predicted, she was forced to switch out and heal after each hit to avoid her HP entering the critical stages. Ruby's weapon of choice was a curved short sword which she wielded with almost as skilled as Leafa herself.

Their other companions were dealing with the other sententials with just as much ease. The woman with the ponytail was fast and strong enough that she was able to take on two of the sententials at the same time without any backup. Her sword skills were so precise that Leafa had no doubt whatsoever that she was an ex-beta tester. The other pair wasn't quite as effective. The blonde boy's wooden shield splintered every time he tried to block the sentential's attack, but thankfully the girl with the black bow took advantage and struck every time there was an opening.

"Kirito, switch!" Leafa called out, snapping him back to the enemies in front of him. Asuna had dealt a few quick rapier thrusts before leaping out of the way of the sentential's counterattack. Kirito rushed in and dealt the final blow, defeating the last of the obstacles to the boss.

The boss battle as well had progressed to the final stage. The attacks from the others had worn down its health, causing it to toss aside its axe and buckler in favor of the talwar on its back.

"Everyone, fall back!" Diavel shouted, charging forward with a sword skill activated.

The boss drew its sword in answer to his challenge, but to Kirito's horror, it wasn't a talwar like was predicted in the guide book. It was a nodachi. Its skill set would be completely different from what they were expecting.

"Diavel!" He shouted, charging forward, "Get back!"

Diavel either didn't hear him or ignored him, and continued charging at Illfang. The boss jumped out of the way, dodging the skill that would have reduced its HP to zero and inflict a devastating slash down Diavel's back. Before any of them could react, a follow-up strike sent him flying across the room.

"Diavel!" Kirito shouted, running over and pulling a health potion out of his bag, "What were you thinking? Here, drink thi-"

Diavel stopped him and shook his head, "You were a beta tester too, weren't you?"

"So you were going for the last attack bonus?" Kirito asked him, "The guaranteed rare item drop?"

He nodded, "Listen to me... It's up to you now... bridge the gap between the beta testers and the other players... and beat that boss so that the others can still have hope." With those last words, the leader of the assault shattered into polygons like everything else that was destroyed in this world.

"No way..." Leafa said weakly from behind him, and he couldn't blame her. She wasn't in the beta test, so she'd never seen another player die. And knowing that he wasn't coming back must make it unbearable for her.

The other players were falling apart. Diavel's death had demoralized them, and if that didn't change, it would be a wholesale slaughter. Gripping his sword tightly, he stood up and turned back to the boss. With Leafa out of action after watching Diavel die, he was on his own-

"I'll go too." Asuna said, standing beside him and surprising him. Smiling slightly, he remembered that he had two team mates, not just one.

"Alright. Same as the minion. Deflect and attack." He said, and they started running past the other parties that were panicking. The boss's nodachi glowed yellow and Kirito recognized the stance. Katana sword skill Tsujikaze. A long range single hit. Quickly, he started his own skill, Rage Spike. The two skills clashed, and both weapons were knocked away from the impact.

"Switch!" He shouted, and Asuna swept past him. Her rapier hit the open boss multiple times with Linear. Switching out again, Kirito blocked the next strike, giving Asuna a chance to strike. They repeated this several times, each time whittling away at the boss's health. After just a few more times, however, the boss's AI changed its attack pattern.

Kirito moved to block another Tsujikaze when the movement changed completely. It curved out of the way of Kirito's sword, making him miss. A sword skill called Gengetsu. With his body still out of his control from the sword skill, he couldn't possibly dodge the attack, and he was sent flying backwards into Asuna.

"Kirito!" Leafa shouted, breaking out of her shock and running towards him and Asuna and removing one of her healing potions. When she started to administer it, the boss's sword swung down.

"Not a chance!" A new voice roared, and the sword was blocked by a massive ax. Agil stood between the three of them with his ax held with both hands, "You guys heal up. We'll keep it occupied. What kind of tanks would we be if the damage dealers are taking all the hits?" Group B, which was composed of players with increased defenses ran forward to help him.

"Thanks." Kirito said gratefully, taking Leafa's potion and watching his HP go up slowly. While he waited, he thought back to every piece of information he had about katana skills from the beta period. "Listen!" he called out, "Don't try and surround it! It has a multi directional attack that'll stun everyone around it! Keep its attention in one area so that it won't use it!"

"Got it!" Agil called back, and the others replied in kind.

'The problem was that single player attacks won't have any meaningful effect on the boss's HP, and they wouldn't last long enough without the rest of the fighters. The whole group was undecided about whether they should retreat or fight, and Kibaou was urging them all to run.

"Why is this happening?" Leafa asked, "They were so united a minute ago."

"The only reason they were united was Diavel." Kirito answered, getting back up since his HP was restored, "Now, the closest thing they have to a leader is Kibaou..."

"That idiot." Leafa growled, walking back to the others and shouting, "Shut up!" With everyone (Even the boss, strangely enough) staring at her silently, she continued, "All of you need to know Diavel's final orders! His order was to defeat the boss and give everyone in this game they hope to clear it once and for all!" Glaring straight at Kibaou, she added, "And he told us who he'd chosen as his replacement!" To everyone's surprise, including his own, she pointed straight at Kirito, "The next leader is him, because he's the only chance we have!"

"She's right!" Agil shouted despite having no possible way of hearing Diavel's last words, "If you still believe in Diavel, than let's obey his orders and win this thing!"

The raid team finally managed to snap out of the shock of Diavel's death, and charged the boss en masse. Leading the charge was Yang's team.

"Thanks, Leafa." Kirito smiled, "Let's get in on this too."

"Right." Leafa nodded, and they joined the battle.

With the raid back on track, the Boss's HP started dropping by a more reasonable amount. Unfortunately, the number of players attacking it meant that in order for them to attack as a group, they had to surround it.

With barely a sliver of health left, Illfang let out a roar and jumped into the air.

"Everyone, back!" Kirito shouted, "It's Tsumujiguruma! That'll hit everyone around it!"

Everyone started to retreat, but not fast enough. The charge time for the skill was already complete, and they were too close to the impact zone.

Quickly, Kirito shot up with Sonic leap, and interrupted the skill. Finally, he started his most powerful skill, two-hit sword skill, Vertical Arc and dealt the final blow. The boss let out a final roar as it broke into polygons like Diavel had just a few short minutes ago.

Predictably, the system message announcing that he'd gotten the last attack bonus appeared in front of him. This time, it was the coat of midnight.

"We did it!" Everyone cheered happily, and more than a few of them came over and clapped him on the back in congratulations.

"Why are you all laughing!?" Kibaou shouted angrily, glaring back at Kirito, "And why'd you let Diavel die?"

"Let him die?" A couple of people murmured, looking over at the Kibaou then back to Kirito.

"You wanted that last attack so badly?" Kibaou asked him, "The last attack bonus item was so important that you let Diavel die, you beta testing bastard!?"

The rest of them started talking amongst themselves, and Leafa started trying to talk to them and explain. 'Sorry Leafa.' He thought to himself, 'Even after you did so much to bring them back together, I ended up screwing it up anyway. Still, I've got to do what Diavel asked me to do too.'

"Ha..." Kirito started laughing in response to the accusation. "A beta tester? That's just an empty title. Did you know that most of the beta testers were completely clueless. They couldn't even level up without a tutorial! Hell, I'd say every person in this room is better than they ever were. But I'm different. I knew about the boss alright. Because during the beta period, I fought stronger monsters on higher floors, ones with more sword skills and smarter AIs. Monsters that the rest of the beta testers thought were unbeatable were child's play for me. So don't insult me by calling me a beta tester. They were trash compared to me."

"What the hell..?" Kibaou shouted, "That makes you worse than a beta tester! You're a damned cheater."

"A beta tester and a cheater. You're a beater!" Another player shouted, and the cry was taken up by the other players as well.

"Beater..." Kirito smiled evilly, opening his menu and equipping his new item, "Sounds nice. Way better than 'beta tester'. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to activate the second floor warp gate. Don't try and follow me. I lost count of how many noobs got themselves killed against nameless mobs after a boss fight."

"Damn you. Apologize to him!" Kibaou called out after him, "Apologize to Diavel!"

Kirito didn't acknowledge him and just kept walking through the boss door towards the next floor.

"What about you?" Kibaou asked Leafa after her brother left, "You two have been awfully close this whole time. I bet she's one of them!"

"You think I'm a beater?" Leafa asked him coldly, "I guess I am. Is that a problem?"

"Damn beaters, you guys killed Diavel!" One of the players from Diavel team roared, rushing for her. Casually, she sidestepped him and followed after her brother without a word.

* * *

Well, that's chapter 2. Future chapters will feature the RWBY characters much more frequently, including some chapters entirely in RWBY point of view.

To address one review, yes, RWBY weapons will be featured, but not until much later in the story. At the start, they won't even be using their usual weapons (for the most part) until they've gotten a relevant skill. I'm planning to get that out of the way fairly early on, but that is why Ruby is using a sword and Yang is using a dagger in this chapter. Because the Martial Arts skill won't be obtainable until floor two, and there's no reason to believe that a Scythe skill would be available so early. Again, a few chapters in, that'll change, but until then...

So, yeah. Same deal as always. You review, I respond, I write, you review again, etc. If you've got any ideas, I'm happy to hear them out (And I know that my beta stalks the review pages too).


	3. Yellow Beauty Burns Gold

RWBY 3

Haven't been online as much as I'd like to be recently, but I'm still alive! Here's the next chapter for your enjoyment.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or Sword Art Online. No money is made from this story and no copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

Kirito sighed as he left the floor one dungeon and arrived on the rocky mountains of floor two. From the cliff, he could see the major town of Urbus at the bottom of the mountain.

'Might as well stop putting off the inevitable.' He thought, opening the window to dissolve his party. His time in the beta kicked in and he ducked in order to avoid the slash from a curved sword.

"That's dangerous!" He shouted at Leafa, who was staring at him angrily.

"I'm sorry." She said easily, "But you have really no place to talk, brother. I seem to recall a certain someone essentially making EVERYONE his enemy. Remember?"

"It's not like I had much of a choice." Kirito protested, wincing when Leafa starts practice swinging her sword, "They already knew I was a beta tester. Trying to hide that or make excuses would only have made it worse for all the other testers."

"Which doesn't explain why you decided to declare yourself public enemy number one." She pointed out, "I mean, its not like I didn't see it coming, but still. You could've waited two minutes for me to rip Kibaou a new one before you tried to go solo."

"What do you mean?" Kirito asked, and her sword passed an inch from his cheek.

"Did you actually think that I'd leave you on your own?" She said sweetly.

"Well…" He chuckled nervously as he tried to find some way to appease her before she started swinging her sword again.

"You're so clueless." She sighed, sheathing her sword, "You really thought that I'd ditch you because you got yourself exiled? Don't you know the meaning of the word 'Family'? We're in this together, Kazuto. So, from one beater to another, let's go."

"I can never beat you, can I?" He said with a small smile, disbanding the party.

"Of course you can't." She said triumphantly.

"You know, you've still got time to reconsi-"

"Send the party request, or I will." Sugu said, her hand falling dangerously close to the hilt of her sword.

Nodding, Kirito sent the party invitation and she accepted it almost immediately.

"Hey, Sugu." He said once they'd started on the path down to the village, "Thanks."

"Don't be a bonehead." She sighed happily, "You don't need to thank me for something like this."

* * *

Yang hurried through the teleport gate to the second floor's main city, Urbus. "Where'd they go?" She said, looking around, "The system message couldn't have been more than five minutes ago. They couldn't have just disappeared!"

"Couldn't you just check your friends' list?" Blake asked after stepping through the gate behind her, "You did register them last night, didn't you?"

"Well, one of them." She said, opening her menu and navigating to her friends' list. Leafa's name was sixth on her list, below Ruby, Blake, and a few of her friends from the beta period. Based on the map, she was walking towards the south exit.

"Come on." She said, rushing towards her location before she got out to the fields where they couldn't hold a proper conversation.

"Wait for me!" Ruby said, running after her. Blake just sighed and followed the energetic red hood and her sister.

The streets were basically empty except for the NPC salesman, so it wasn't hard to keep track of each other. Despite that, the streets were far more maze like than the straight-forward town of beginnings was. Even with Yang, a beta player who'd been here before, it took them a few minutes to reach the south gate.

"Leafa!" Yang called out, waving at her.

"Yang?' She asked, "What are you doing here? More than that, are you sure it's a good idea for you to be seen with me?"

"I don't care." Yang shrugged, "Actually, I was hoping to have a quick word with your brother."

"Kaz- Kirito?" Leafa said, correcting herself mid sentence, "He's talking to a friend of ours, and I'm supposed to meet him here. He shouldn't be too long, if you'd like to wait here with me."

"Sure, that'd be fine." Yang said, leaning up against the outer wall of the city, "So, level with me here, Leafa. You weren't in the beta, were you?"

"Nope." She admitted, "That was my brother, not me. That said, I'm not ditching him. So if I've gotta be a 'beater' to stick with him, fine by me."

"Spoken like a true sister." Yang nodded approvingly, "Though I imagine that he wasn't too happy with that?"

"How'd you guess?" Leafa sighed.

"Because if Ruby tried to follow me after I did something stupid, I'd be pretty pissed." She answered, "But I'd give in anyway, because she's my little sister."

"And don't you forget it!" Ruby smiled at her sister.

"Yeah, he wasn't too happy with me, but I just had to threaten him a little." Leafa shrugged.

"Atta Girl." Yang nodded.

"Leafa?" Kirito said, walking over to them with someone Yang was quite familiar with.

"It's been a while, Argo." She said to one of her closest 'friends' from the beta.

"Yang, how've you been?" The rat grinned, "I haven't seen you since the first day."

"Pretty good, I guess." Yang shrugged, gesturing towards her sister, "Allow me to introduce my sister-"

"Ruby, I believe?" Argo grinned, "I've heard about her already."

"How do you do that?" Ruby asked in awe.

"fifty thousand col." Argo replied, knowing full well that none of them, or even all of them combined, could pay that outrageous price.

"Damn." Yang muttered, "Well, I'll have to keep that in mind for later…"

"The price goes up daily." Argo smirked.

"I knew it." Yang sighed, turning to Kirito, "Listen, Kirito, can we talk for a sec?"

"Yeah, sure." Kirito nodded, "Leafa, be right back?"

"Go ahead. I'll be here." Leafa said, waving them off.

Yang and Kirito walked a short distance away, just barely inside the safe zone around the city.

"I wanted to say thanks." Yang started, "Because, I'm-"

"A beta tester?" Kirito guessed, "I could tell from watching you fight. No beginner would use a dagger in this death game. Unless, of course, they already knew they could use it better than any other weapon."

"I thought you might've figured it out." Yang chuckled, "But seriously, thank you. You made yourself the villain so that the other beta testers could keep the trust of the player base, didn't you?"

"Diavel's last words were that the beta players and beginners needed to be united." Kirito replied, "But after the disaster of the first boss battle, that would've been impossible. Unless they united against someone even worse than a beta tester, someone like…"

"A beater." Yang nodded, "Regardless, I owe you one. You're the only reason that I can feel safe staying with Ruby. The last thing I want is to drag her into the hate that's been building between betas and beginners."

"I feel the same way about Leafa coming with me, but she's too stubborn for her own good." Kirito chuckled.

"Anyway, thanks again." Yang said, "Let's get back to the others."

"Sure thing." Kirito replied, following after her. "Hey, Yang." He said, thinking of something, "Why don't you guys tag along with me and Leafa? Argo gave me a pretty interesting tip."

"'gave'?" She asked, "What makes you so special? She's never given me anything without paying an arm and a leg."

"She owed me a favor." Kirito shrugged, "You in?"

"sure, sounds fun." She replied with a grin, "Argo giving away information is a once in a life time event, so I might as well get involved."

"Cool. Than lets get the others and head out." Kirito nodded, and they returned to their parties.

* * *

"That took WAY longer than it should have." Yang sighed the next morning when they finally reached the far south side of floor two.

"So, what are we doing out here, anyway?" Ruby asked, looking around the clearing.

"There's supposed to be a quest around here that unlocks the martial arts skill." Kirito answered her, bringing up his quest log which hadn't updated with the relevant information, "During the beta, no one ever unlocked it, but Argo found the quest long before anyone else. She wasn't able to complete it, though."

"Any idea what this quest involves?" Leafa asked, "I mean, I can't be as easy as just killing a bunch of monsters, can it?"

"No, Argo could've done that on her own." Kirito shook his head, "Despite her appearance, that girl could probably outfight me if there was information to be gained. Apparently, we have to break a nearly unbreakable rock."

"Sounds fun." Yang responded eagerly, "What about you guys?"

"I'll pass." Blake answered, "I really don't have any interest in a martial arts skill."

"I'll try it if you do, Yang." Ruby said happily, "But where is it?"

"It's around here somewhere." Kirito told them, "Let's split up and search."

"Sure thing. Leafa, I'll message you if we find it." Yang said, taking her party into the forest. Leafa and Kirito went the other direction. The area was naturally swarming with wasp mobs, but at their levels, Kirito and Leafa weren't even troubled by them. As long as the field bosses weren't defeated, though, the wasps would continue to spawn. In fact, if the data from the beta was still accurate, they'd start to spawn stronger and stronger. Still, the bosses could wait until after they'd finished with their current quest.

"Kazuto." Sugu said, pointing to her menu. At the top of the quest list was a new entry called 'Disciple's Challenge.'

" Mark it." Kazuto told her, and she did. A location appeared on both of their maps.

"I'm sending a message to Yang." She said while they made their way towards the quest's start location.

"Are you going to give it a try?" he asked Sugu, "I mean, it is right up your alley."

"I don't do hand to hand combat." She replied, "As long as I've got a sword, I'm fine. I'll just do some light training while you do your thing."

"Trying to bridge the level gap?" Kirito grinned.

"It's not my fault!" she huffed, "If I hadn't gotten the rare item on the first floor first, I wouldn't have suffered the exp penalty…"

"Maybe, but I'm still two levels higher." He replied, stepping into the clearing ahead of them. The first thing that caught their eye was a massive stone that was a good ten feet taller than either of them, and thick enough to appear almost impossible to destroy.

"I've gotta break that?" Kirito muttered.

Leafa clapped him on the back and nodded understandingly, "I hope you get a lot of xp from it, because otherwise I'm going to be the one who comes out on top this time!"

"Just you wait." He said, walking over to the NPC standing beside the log cabin with a quest icon above his head, "I'll break that thing in no time."

"Right, well, until then, I'm disbanding the party." Leafa said, leaving the party from her menu, "Wouldn't want you leech my exp, would I?"

"You're evil." Kirito sighed, "But wait a minute, alright? I'd rather you party with Blake for safety's sake."

"And if the situations were reversed, you'd wait?" Leafa asked him, and he had the good graces to wince, " That's what I thought. See you later!"

Sighing, Kirito started the quest and started the audacious task of breaking the giant stone monster. It wasn't too long until Yang's party arrived.

"Hey, Kirito!" Yang shouted, running towards him, "Good job finding the que- Holy crap, what happened to your face? You look like…"

"Argo?" Kirito sighed, "Yeah. This was the quest that gave Argo her whiskers…"

"And we've gotta break this thing, huh?" Ruby said, looking up at the rock.

"Let's go!" Yang said, eagerly running over to the quest NPC to start on their own.

"Hey, Blake, would you mind helping Leafa?" Kirito called out to the other member of Yang's party.

"Might as well since I've got nothing better to do." Blake shrugged, walking back out of the quest area's safe zone and back into the wild.

"So, three people vs one giant rock." Ruby said when she and Yang, now bearing their whiskers stood next to him.

"It's a race!" Yang nodded, "Ready, set, go!"

* * *

"Why won't this stupid thing break!" Ruby shouted, wailing on it repeatedly with her fists so hard that her hp was slightly reduced.

"It'll break eventually." Yang said as she practiced the motions for the Martial Arts skill she'd learned, "It did for me."

"I'm inclined to side with Ruby at the moment." Kirito sighed, "How is it that you broke it in less than twelve hours and we're still wailing on it after two days?"

"Maybe it's a sign…" Yang sighed, "I wonder if they sell weapons for Martial Arts…"

"I'm sure they do somewhere." Kirito shrugged, resting slightly to let his hp restore. "It doesn't matter how high your strength is, without some kind of enhancement, it would be pretty ineffective against monsters on its own. Maybe the quest NPCs got something?"

"I'll check it out." She replied, 'I expect one of you to have succeeded by the time I get back. Good luck!"

"You got it." Kirito sighed, getting back to work on the stone.

Yang left her baby sister and Kirito to work on the quest while she approached the quest NPC. "Have you got anything for sale?" She asked with the standard request that opens a shopping interface.

"Looking for equipment?" The NPC asked, "Well, that'll be a bit of a problem. You see, I don't think that you're quite ready for them. Would you care to prove me wrong?"

A window appeared in front of her, asking if she wanted to accept a quest entitled 'Martial Artist's Pride.' Eagerly, she accepted.

"Now, I'll open the training dungeon out back." The NPC continued after the window closed, "You just need to go in and clear out the monsters inside without using any weapons. If you succeed, I'll sell you what I've got. Be careful, though. Weapons won't do you any good against these monsters."

"Alright, I'll do that." She said, ending the dialogue and walking around the cabin. As he'd said, a door opened in the rock face behind the house, and as soon as she touched the door, it opened a system warning. 'The area inside this door will not allow the use of any weapons. Are you prepared?'

Tapping the yes again, the door opened silently to allow her in.

Inside the first room were half a dozen of the boars that surrounded the starting city. With her dagger, she could probably kill them all in about thirty seconds, but since that wasn't possible, she jumped forward. Once her arm took the required position, the system took over and initiated the basic thrusting skill, Senda. The attack took off quite a bit of the boar's health, but even with Yang's strength, it would still require two more times to finally kill it.

As soon as it did, another boar charged at her from behind. Quickly, she did a back flip and the system started another skill, Gengetsu, that struck the critical region at the back of the boar's neck. It fell in a single blow without a sound.

"Two down, four to go." She sighed as the other boars noticed her presence and charged her at once.

After a long, drawn out battle with the boars, during which time she was forced to drink a health potion twice, she was finally able to bring down the final enemy.

"About time." She sighed, starting to head back until a door in the back of the room opened, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me." She sighed before continuing onward.

The next room had four Kobold minions, but luckily they weren't naturally aggressive. Which meant she just had to take them one by one. Or so she thought.

As soon as she walked in, all four turned to her and drew their weapons. 'Stupid changes.' She thought before singling out one of the minions as the starter. Though she'd have liked to wait, since they're recharge time was fairly long, and who knows how long this quest is, she really didn't have the potions to fight four of them the way that she'd dealt with the boars. So she initiated her two-hit skill, Meteor Impact.

Once the system took control, she burst forward and sent the minion flying into the air, taking a chunk of its hp in the process before driving her opposite fist into its throat and slamming it into the ground. The impact sent the remaining minions flying backwards, taking a small amount of damage in the process.

While they were momentarily stunned from the attack, she had to take one of them out if she was to have any chance of clearing this quest. The one with the lowest health was closest to her, so she decided to abandon sword skills in favor of what she knew best. No-holds barred beat downs.

With her considerable strength stat, even without skills, the damage she was able to deal was enough to bring its hp down to zero before it could react, leaving her with only two left. The cool down from Meteor Impact still hadn't expired, so she prepared herself for a long fight.

The first to regain its composure started a sword skill, one she recognized as sonic leap. So she intercepted with her own skill, Skill Break, and followed up with an elbow to the face. The recoil knocked it back and she finished it with a Senda.

"And then there was one." She smirked before finishing the last of them with another beat down without skills.

As she'd expected, her victory opened another door for her to progress, but first she had to restore the hp she lost by attacking without using sword skills. In the meantime, Meteor Impact's cool down finally completed, so she could use it against whatever monsters were next in this challenge. So far, all the monsters were slightly stronger variants of those found on floor one, which did narrow down the monsters that could be ahead of her. Assuming they were all Kobolds from the dungeon, the rest shouldn't be any problem for her.

With her hp fully restored, and her skills ready to go, Yang took a calming breath and stepped through the door. She was met with a loud howl.

Wolves. Of all the monsters on floor one, it had to be the one that was much more agile than she was. Three dire wolves growled at her from across the open area, slowly splitting up to surround her.

The first skill she activated was Senda, charging at the wolf directly ahead of her. The other two pounced as soon as her attack connected, and she looked over to see her hp drop slightly. The only upside was that they didn't have the strength to deal singularly dangerous wounds, but her hp wouldn't last if she couldn't take out two of them soon. Their hp was only moderate, so the attack did a fair amount. One more would be enough to finish the first wolf, but than the other two would attack again. That would put her in a very dangerous position.

Changing her game, she turned to one of the wolves that was at full health and started Meteor Impact. The wolf, though, dodged out of the way of the first strike. Regardless, Yang jumped into the air from the second half of the skill, and drove her fist into the ground to create a shockwave. The wolves dodged the worst of it, though the small room made it nearly impossible to avoid it completely. In the aftermath, however, all three pounced.

With her only regaining control of her body a split second before, she minimally moves her body to at the very least avoid the worst of it. Two of the wolves tore into her arms, dealing an impressive amount of damage for creatures that came from level one, but the third missed her completely. Which was a good thing too, since it would've torn her head off if it got the chance.

"Close one." She sighed, jumping back and drinking a health potion. Looking up and watching her hp slowly rise, she saw a flash of yellow on the floor by the wolves. Straining her eyes to see in the semi-darkness, she could just make out a few strands of her own blonde hair…

At that moment, everything turned red.

When she finally came to, the room was covered in craters so completely, she'd actually broken a hole into the floor labyrinth. Thankfully, the door to the next section was (mostly) undamaged, so she was able to heal her hp (It had somehow managed to fall to barely more than zero) and wait for her skills to reset before continuing. All the while, she had just one thought.

'No more wolves'

To her delight, she came face to face with two Kobold Troopers with axes drawn. "Only two this time?" She grinned, "Too easy."

The battle took barely five minutes, and compared to the wolves, she didn't even lose any hp. Her hp was high enough that, in the end, she didn't even see the need to use her last healing potion.

Beyond the next door, she grinned even wider. All that stood in front of her was a single Kobold Sentential.

"Game over." She said, before setting about demolishing it.

Once she'd retrieved her loot, she waited for the next door to open, and wondered offhandedly if the next monster would be Illfang the Kobold Lord. After several minutes, however, the door didn't show itself. Turning back the way she came, she emerged from the training cave and returned to the quest NPC.

"Looks like you're made of sterner stuff than I'd thought." The NPC said once she'd stopped right in front of him, "Here. Beginners Gauntlets. Those should do you well enough. Once you've improved, I'll sell you something a bit stronger."

A system window appeared in front of her that showed the stats of her newly acquired weapon. The stats were actually slightly better than her dagger, though the accuracy sure took a hit. Still, they were more than good enough to give it a shot.

Manipulating her inventory, she equipped the gauntlets. The dagger at her waist disappeared, and in their place, a band of steel appeared around each wrist. As soon as she took a combat stance, the bands surrounded her fists and enclosed them completely.

"Yeah, I could definitely get used to this." She grinned.

When she left her combat stance, the gauntlets returned to their previous form, and so she returned to check on her sister.

"yo!" Kirito waved at her, the whisker marks disappeared from his face, "How'd it go? That seemed to take a while."

"He wanted a quest for them." She answered, "But it wasn't too tough. And look what I've got." She took her stance again, and the gauntlets appeared as before. Kirito looked at them, seemingly impressed while Ruby's eyes were sparkling.

"Now I REALLY want to finish this stupid quest!" She whined, redoubling her effort to break the seemingly unbreakable rock.

"It'll happen." Yang assured her.

"Hey, Yang." Kirito said, "Wanna give them a try?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, and a window appeared in front of her. A duel request.

"What's it gonna be?" He asked, drawing his sword.

"I'm not about to turn down a challenge, Kirito." She said, accepting the challenge and setting it to first strike. The countdown started and both sides took their stances. Ruby ignored the rock for the first time in two days and gave the two her undivided attention.

"Kirito and Yang?" Leafa asked as she and Blake returned from their training in the surrounding area, "How'd this happen?"

"Yang got new weapons, so Kirito's giving her a chance to test them out." Ruby explained, not taking her eyes off the countdown that had just reached ten.

"Oh." Leafa nodded, seemingly accepting that answer and watching from next to Ruby, "Well, we've got some news of our own, but that can wait until later."

"Then let's go!" Kirito shouted, and the count reached zero. As soon as it did, Kirito darted forward with a Sonic Leap. Yang countered with Skill Break, but Kirito had already stopped and picked up a pebble from the ground. Flicking it at her, she was forced to block it with her left gauntlet. That momentary opening gave him a short window to close the distance.

Unfortunately for him, Yang had already expected his move, and concealed by her body, she prepared a skill, Senda. Kirito countered with Slant. The two skills clashed in a shower of sparks, but the one who was eventually repelled was Kirito, who was overwhelmed by Yang's superior strength. Luckily, the damage was minor enough to not classify as the first strike.

"Quick, aren't you?" Yang commented.

"Well, since you've put everything into your strength, its about all I've got." Kirito shrugged, "A head to head fight with you is just stupid."

"Well, you say that like I'll let you do otherwise." Yang replied.

"And you act like you've any say in the matter." Kirito countered, charging at her with Sonic Leap. When Yang attempted to counter with Skill Break, however, Kirito's skill flew past her. As soon as the skill ended, Kirito spun around while Yang was still preoccupied with her skill and delivered a small cut to her upper arm. The duel ended immediately after.

"Damn." Yang cursed, "How'd you do that anyway? You shouldn't be able to change a skill's movement once its started."

"You were never my target." Kirito replied, "I was trying to get behind you all along. With your strength raised so exclusively, you don't have the agility required for quick, pinpoint movements."

"Well I might have to change that before I face you again." Yang said, and both competitors sheathe their weapons.

"I'd really rather not." Kirito chuckled, "Those punches of yours are no joke. If you'd actually managed to connect, I'd probably have lost three-quarters of my hp, if not more. You're a scary person, Yang."

"And you're not exactly sweet and innocent yourself, Kirito." She replied, "Since you probably could've just as easily taken off my head with that last attack."

"Maybe." Kirito shrugged, "But you're scary enough to survive without it."

"Ahem." Leafa cleared her throat loudly, "Yang, if you'd please stop flirting with my brother…"

"But wouldn't it be sweet?" Ruby asked, "We could be sisters!"

"Why do I feel like I'm the only sane one..?" Blake sighed.

* * *

Anyway, the other RWBY characters will also start to get their canon weapons instead of generic swords over the next couple of chapters. But until than, review!


	4. Beaters and Bosses

RWBY 4

Hi, guys! I'm back with a bunch of chapters just about ready to go, so i hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online or RWBY. I'm just bored and like to write fanfics. No money is being made from this story.

* * *

"You're no fun, Leafa." Yang sighed, "Well, fine. So what's this news of yours?"

"We've both got an extra skill." Leafa said proudly, opening her menu. Setting it to visible mode, she opened her skill list and scrolled down. One of the available skills was Katana.

"Me too. "Blake said, showing an almost identical screen.

"How'd this happen?" Ruby asked eagerly.

"We don't actually know…" Leafa laughed nervously.

"During the beta, it was fairly common for the katana skill to show up to people who trained their curved sword skill." Kirito replied, and Yang nodded.

"Yeah, I actually used it once." Yang added, "But it wasn't really my style, so I dropped it."

"Still, something must've changed from the beta." Kirito noted, "No one was getting extra skills this early. They didn't start appearing until floor 5 or so."

"Any idea where we could actually get a Katana?" Leafa asked them, "I mean, the skills kinda useless without the weapon."

"I dunno." Yang shook her head, "Like Kirito said, no one got these skills until floor 5, and the swords weren't obtainable before that, so you might have to wait a few floors."

"Such a pain." Leafa sighed dejectedly, "But at least I have something to look forward to."

"That's the spir-" Kirito started when they all heard a loud crack. Turning, they saw the impossibly hard stone split in two and Ruby jumping for joy next to it.

"I did it!" She laughed, "Now I've got the martial arts skill and can get those gauntle-"

"Absolutely not." Yang shot down her hopes with a single brutally direct statement.

"You didn't even let me finish!" Ruby pouted.

"No, I didn't." Yang answered, "Because you're not going. Period. The end of the discussion."

"Why not!?" Ruby whined.

"Because that quest is too much for you, and I won't let my little sister die." Yang replied, "Listen, if you try and take that quest, I'll drag you away if I have to cut off your arms and drag you."

"No need to be so mean…" Ruby sighed, hobbling over to the NPC to complete the quest.

"SO, that's about it than?" Kirito asked everyone, "No one else wants to do the quest?"

"I want gauntl-" Ruby started, but Yang cut her off, "No."

"Then it's about time we head back. They'll probably be needing some help killing the field bosses." Kirito said, "Shall we head back together?"

"Sure." Everyone agreed, so they left the safe haven of the quest area behind them and set about returning to Urbus.

* * *

"Hey! Hey, Ren!" Nora Valkyrie said happily as she and her partner Ren stepped out of the floor one dungeon, "What's that over there? What is it?"

"I'm going assume that it's a boss." Ren replied, looking out over the ridge as the giant bull fought back against around a dozen players.

"So that's a boss…" She nodded happily, "I was wondering what they looked like. I still can't believe we missed the boss for floor one! It's all your fault, Ren!"

"You were the one who insisted on leveling until you could wield that rare drop you got." Ren reminded her.

"I know!" She smiled, hugging the two handed hammer in her hand as close to her chest as she could, "But it's just so cool! I want the first monster it kills to be something special… I know! Let's go kill that boss!"

"I don't think that's a good-" Ren started, but she'd already jumped from the cliff, "Why do I even try?" He sighed before sliding down the slope after her.

* * *

"Jaune, get out of the way!" Pyrrha shouted as her party member froze up while the field boss started stampeding.

"I'm trying!" Jaune called out as he ran haphazardly away from the giant bull, "But he keeps following me!"

"Of course he's following you!" Pyrrha said, rushing in and slashing at the bull's legs to distract it from trampling Jaune into mud, "I thought you said you could be a tank!"

"I just said that cause I thought it sounded cool!" Jaune shouted as he ran from the battlefield.

"You idiot!" One of the members of the 'Legend' guild shouted, "What the hell is wrong with you!? Once we're done here, hit the road!"

"Give it a rest and start fighting!" Pyrrha called back while singlehandedly holding the line against the boss.

"What for?" The guild called out, "He's already screwed it up for us! Miracles don't just fall out of the sky, you know!?"

"YAHOOOO!" A voice shouted, and at the same time, there was a loud smash and the bull's head hit the ground. On the bull's back, an orange haired girl clutching a massive hammer was laughing and hitting it on the head repeatedly, "Did I get him?" She asked playfully, smashing it in the eye one more time for good measure. The bull immediately started bucking, and she kept laughing while holding on for dear life.

"She's hopeless." A new voice said from the side, and a young man dressed in traditional Chinese attire walked towards them, wielding a pair of katar, "Forgive us for crashing your boss raid. I hope you don't mind a few more fighters?"

"Not particularly." Pyrrha answered without consulting the 'guild' that was supposed to be leading the raid, "After all, she seems to be doing more damage than the rest of us put together."

"Yes, she's like that." He smiled, "I assure you that it's probably not intentional. She just acts on instinct. And her instincts are uncommonly good."

"Then let's get in there." Pyrrha said, charging at the rampaging bull along with the mystery man and the quite possibly insane girl still clinging to its back while hitting it with her hammer.

"Um… Pyrrha!?" Jaune called out, "I'll just stay here and wait for my hp to go up…"

"Get in there already!" Beowulf shouted, pushing Jaune towards the bull despite his hp being just barely above the red.

Pyrrha deflects another stomp, than jumps to the side and swallows another health potion. They'd just about defeated the boss, though not without basically emptying her supply of potions in the process. Still, it wouldn't take more than a few more exchanges to put it down for good.

"W-W-Watch out!" Jaune called as he was sent flying into the path of the beast.

"Run!" Pyrrha shouted, running to intercept the attack. At the same time, the mystery man was carving into the bull's hindquarters rapidly, his blades moving so fast that even she couldn't see him move. All the while, the girl was brutally caving in its skull repeatedly with a rather unnerving smile on her face.

"S-S-Stay back!" Jaune stuttered, swinging wildly as the boss approached him. The bull's foot stopped a mere inch from him, and by sheer chance, Jaune's sword scored a particularly deep blow. The last of its hp finally depleted, the creature collapsed and exploded into polygons.

"Good job, Jaune!" Pyrrha praised him, running over and taking a healing potion to make sure he was okay.

"Aw… bull went boom…" The girl said sadly, hanging her hammer on her back, "So sad."

"Nora, don't sound so disappointed." The man sighed before turning to them, "My apologies for the belated introduction. My name is Ren, and my comrade is Nora. We happened to arrive on this floor only a few minutes ago, and happened upon your battle. And Nora… Well, she was quite insistent on joining."

"She fell out of the sky." Pyrrha reminded him.

"Jumped, actually." He corrected, "Honestly, I'm surprised that she survived the fall."

"Must be because she's too airheaded to actually die from a fall…" one of the guild members murmured, glaring at Jaune, "You! Give us the last attack bonus. You don't deserve it!"

"Ah… Um…Ok-" Jaune stuttered until Pyrrha ran past him and stood between them.

"And you somehow deserve it more?" she asked them, "Since I seem to recall that none of you did anything."

"Only because he-" The leader pointed angrily at Jaune, "ruined our plans! How were we supposed to attack if our tank couldn't even take a hit properly!"

"The same way as the rest of us!" Pyrrha answered, "And after you cowardly hid back a safe distance, you have the nerve to ask the man who dealt the final blow to hand over his prize? You're all disgraces."

"I'm inclined to agree with her." Ren said, "I didn't see any of you fighting the boss, so you really have no right to request the last attack bonus."

"Yup yup." Nora agreed happily, "weaklings don't get prizes."

"So, we're agreed then." Pyrrha nodded, "Sorry, but the people actually beat the boss agree that you're shit out of luck."

"Of course, if you want, you could always beat us all in duels." Nora suggested, "Than I wouldn't mind agreeing to give you the drop." Drawing her hammer, she added, "Anyone?"

"We won't forget this!" The guild shouted before running for the safety of the town.

* * *

Kirito and Leafa split up from the other three just before they arrived back in Urbus. Though Yang wasn't really concerned with them hanging around for a while, enough time had passed that stories of the 'beaters' had probably started to spread among those players on the second floor. Neither of them wanted to inconvenience them, so they went their separate ways.

"Keep in touch, alright?" Yang said to Leafa.

"Sure." Leafa nodded, "If you need a hand, let us know, alright?"

"Ditto for you guys!" Ruby added enthusiastically.

"Take care.' Blake nodded as well.

"We'll team up again for the second floor boss raid, alright?" Kirito waved back.

"That poor bastard won't even know what it's dealing with." Yang laughed, "See you then!"

"Just us again, huh?" Kirito sighed.

"Could be worse, I guess." Leafa shrugged, walking right next to him, "Where are we heading now?"

"The next village isn't too far, so we'll go there. There's a few quests I wanted to check out while I was at it."

"Sure, let's go." Leafa smiled.

* * *

"Wow..." Yang sighed, collapsing into the chair inside a bar in the final village of floor two, "That seems so much harder than before..."

"Really?" Blake asked her, taking a seat across from her, "I can't help but think that it might've been because a certain someone insisted on fighting everything that crossed their path, including no less than five different PARTIES."

"It was seven, actually." Ruby chimed in after sitting in the last chair, turning to Yang, "But she's got a point. Blake and I didn't get to do any training."

"Yeah, I know..." Yang muttered, "My bad. I promise, you two can take the lead in the dungeon."

"Really!?" Ruby said eagerly, almost literally bouncing in her chair.

"Yes, really." she nodded, "You too, Blake. I don't mind taking a back seat and letting you two get some training in before the boss raid."

"Thanks." Blake said, taking the drinker that the NPC waitress handed her, "Before we start clearing the dungeon, though, I was planning on stopping into the weapons shop."

"Really? What for?" Yang asked her, sipping her own drink, "I thought that your sword was in pretty good shape. Looking for an improvement?"

"Well, if it works out that way, I won't complain." She shrugged, "But actually, I was planning on seeing if they might have any katana. If they've given out the extra skills earlier, maybe the shop stocks have been adjusted accordingly."

"Good plan." Ruby said, looking at her sister, "What about you?"

"I need some potions." Yang said after a minute of looking through her inventory, "After that, maybe I'll see if the blacksmith can improve my gauntlets at all."

"What are you going to do, Ruby?" Blake asked her, finishing her drink and pushing the mug to the end of the table.

"Well..." Ruby muttered, "I guess I'll do some window-shopping."

"Alrighty." Yang said, opening her menu and calling over the barmaid again, "Since its getting a bit late, why don't we do our shopping now, than spend the night here?"

"After two weeks sleeping on the ground in safe zones?" Blake smiled, "I thought you'd never ask."

"Yay! Beds!" Ruby added.

"So, we're agreed." Yang nodded back to them, tapping the menu a few times and paying the barmaid for their drinks and the rooms, "Blake, you can have room 201, ruby, we'll share room 202. Everyone alright with that?"

"We haven't shared a room since we were kids!" Ruby said happily, jumping to her feet, "Alright, I'll be back guys!"

"See you." Blake waved her off, and gets up herself, "Than I'll be heading out as well."

"Hey, Blake, before you go." Yang stood up, "I was wondering if I could ask you for a favor..."

"What's on your mind?" Blake asked her.

"Look, I'll just come right out with it. Would you be able to keep an eye on Ruby for me?" Yang asked her, bowing slightly, "I know that it's a lot to ask, but I'm really worried about her taking part in this whole death game. She's so naive... I don't want anything to happen to her."

"That's understandable." Blake replied kindly, "If I had a sibling, I wouldn't want them anywhere near this game. Sure, I'll look out for her."

"Thanks, Blake, I owe you one." Yang sighed in relief, "But if it's not too much trouble..."

"She won't even know I'm there." Blake guessed what she was going to say, "Don't forget that my hiding skill is much higher than yours."

"Just like your 'night vision' skill?" Yang asked knowingly.

"...I don't know what you mean." Blake said a little too slowly to be believed, walking out the door and following the same path as Ruby.

* * *

"Oh wow!" Ruby said enthusiastically, looking around Taran square. This was the first time since the first floor raid meeting that she'd seen so many people together in one place. And unlike the first floor, everyone's weapons were actually different. Everyone on the first floor just had swords, axes, and maybe one person with a spear. Yang's knives were really the most distinctive weapon she'd seen.

But now, there were hammers, spears, knives, long swords, short swords, and even someone holding a pair of chakrams. One girl even had a hammer on her back that was probably bigger than she was.

"Um, excuse me!" Ruby said to the girl with the hammer, "Where'd you get it? The hammer I mean?"

"It was a drop!" The girl said happily, drawing the weapon and hugging it close to her chest, "On the first floor. I was walking around-"

"Running." Her companion, a young man dressed in a traditional Chinese martial arts attire, corrected her.

"Right, running." She said without missing a beat, "So, I was walking around the first floor, and I somehow ended up in a dungeon-"

"You ran into the dungeon screaming 'yeah! Dungeon!" Her companion corrected again.

"So, there I was, surrounded by no less than a hundred-"

"It was five."

"No less than five hundred giant beetles!" She continued, and her partner face-palmed. He seemingly gave up trying to correct her, so she kept going unchecked, "My hp had already dropped into the red before that, so I was in a real pickle. But then this GIANT scorpion thing came out of nowhere and started trying to sting me. So I ran around, and before I knew it, the scorpion had killed the beetles! So than I just kept slicing at it until it died too, and what did I get but my precious hammer." She sighed contentedly, hanging her hammer from her back again.

"Wow..." Ruby said in awe, "That is the most awesome story I have ever heard. Ever!"

"The scorpion actually killed itself." her companion added, "She jumped on its back, and it tried to sting her."

"It was pretty awesome, wasn't it?" The girl with the hammer said, almost as if she hadn't heard her friends' comment.

"Well, thanks for the story, gotta go, bye!" Ruby said quickly when she saw another weapon that caught her eye. The owner was a girl dressed entirely in white with her white hair pulled back into a ponytail. However, before Ruby could corner her and ask about the weapon, she walked into one of the small NPC clothing stores.

"Welcome!" The shopkeeper said as soon as Ruby walked in, "Can I interest you in some outerwear?"

"Um..." Ruby started until she saw a long red hooded cloak hanging nearby, "How much is it for that?" she asked eagerly.

* * *

Blake watched silently from the shadows as Ruby customized her new item, but she couldn't help but be distracted by the girl who exited the shop while Ruby was still preoccupied with her outfit.

"It's not possible..." Blake said, eyes wide, "What's someone like her doing here?"

Of all the people in the world, she was one of the last that she'd expected to see Her white hair pulled back into a ponytail made her look identical to the pictures that Blake had seen of her IRL. The heiress of the Schnee company, Weiss Schnee.

Weiss clearly didn't notice her and walked back down Main Street. Rather than following her, though, Blake stepped out and walked over to the weapons shop. As curious as she might be about Schnee, her promise to Yang still came first. She'd decide what to do about her later tonight.

* * *

"What's up, Kazuto?" Suguha asked when he suddenly stopped outside a room inside the floor two dungeon. She couldn't see past him, but since his detection skill was much higher than hers, so he's generally better taking the lead.

"Trouble." He frowned, "They changed it since the beta period."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they've added a mid-boss." he replied, "Good news is that it's weakened. We might be able to beat it."

She didn't have to ask what the bad news was. If it's weakened, that means that other players have already made it this far. And no one had past them on their way here. Which could only mean that...

"What do you want to do?" Kazuto asked her, "Our safest bet would probably be to head back to town, try and scrounge up a few more parties and take it in a raid, but..."

"But no one's going to team with a pair of beaters." Suguha nodded, "I could message Yang?"

"It would take too much time." Kazuto shook his head, "The dungeon's like a maze. If we aren't careful, even we'd end up getting lost around here. Which means-"

"There was never really a choice to begin with." She smiled, taking out a health potion, "Heal up, we're going in."

Nodding his head, he drank a health potion at the same time as she did. Both their hp rose back to maximum, and they drew their swords.

"You taking point or am I?" she asked.

"I'll go. I know this boss." He answered before charging into the room. She followed just a step behind him.

In the center of the room was another Minotaur, but unlike those in dungeon, it was many times larger than they were. The name beside it was Baran the General Taurus. Like her brother had said, it had six hp gauges, but only one and a half were filed. Whatever party came before them wasn't a team of noobs, that's for sure. They'd managed to take out three-quarters of its hp.

"Sugu, watch for the hammer!" Kazuto shouted, deflecting the boss's attack and switching out with her, "It has a special skill that lets it counter attack immediately!"

"Got it!" She called back starting her sword skill 'Sharp nail'. As soon as the final of the three blows connected, the boss's war hammer came flying at her. Quickly jumping back, it slams into the ground and leaves a massive crater in the floor. Immediately, Sugu collapses to the ground. The status icon beside her hp gauge indicated that she was stunned.

"Numbing Impact? No way!" She said to herself as the boss towered over her, "I dodged it!"

"Get down!" Kazuto shouted, and she dodged right away. IN a flash of silver, he swept past with Sonic Leap, delivering a blow straight across its torso. That brief moment was enough for her to recover, and she countered while it was still off balance. Her rage spike collided with its armored collar, and it crashed into the ground.

"Let's end it!" Kirito shouted, charging up his strongest skill. Four consecutive hits tore into the boss's weak point, its neck, but it maintained a tiny sliver of hp. When it started to recover, however, Sugu started her own skill, 'Rage Tempest'. The three hit combo finally brought the boss down, and it shattered into polygons.

"Good job." Kazuto said, holding his hand up.

"Thanks!" She said, giving him a high five. As they boss expected, a system window appeared in front of each of them. Kazuto's was probably just a simple breakdown of the exp and col they'd gotten, but Leafa's had another message.

'You received the Last Attack Bonus!'

"What'd you get?" Kazuto asked her.

"I got-" She started to say excitedly as she scrolled down, but then she froze upon seeing her prize.

"What's up?" Kazuto asked her worriedly after seeing her face flush suddenly, "Are you feeling alright? You wanna call it a day?"

"N-N-NO, I'm fine!" She said quickly, closing down the screen, "Let's go! We've got a lot more ground to cover before we can find a safe zone to rest in!"

"If you say so..." Kirito said, "But before that, would you mind showing me your equipment? I want to make sure your sword wasn't damaged in that last attack."

"Huh?" She said, looking at him, "That can happen?"

"Occasionally." He nodded.

"Alright than..." She said, opening the window to show him.

Grinning, Kirito quickly pressed a few buttons on the screen and materialized all of her items.

"Hey!" She shouted, trying to stop him from digging through the pile of items, "Get out of there!"

"Sorry!" He said unconvincingly, "It was an accident! I'll help you pick everything up!"

"Liar!" She shouted, trying to push him away when he grabbed the one thing she didn't want him to find.

"Huh?" Kirito said, looking down at the only item in her storage that he wasn't able to account for, "This couldn't have been... could it...?"

"Give me back my stuff!" She shouted, her face red with embarrassment as she grabbed the panties away from him, "Besides, it's not my fault that the stupid GM are perverts!"

"I couldn't agree with you more." Kirito grinned as Leafa picked up all her stuff, "So... any chance you'll try those o-" He stopped dead as something very hard collided with him in the fork of the leg, his mouth open in a silent scream as he saw that his sister had just hit him with her (sheathed) sword in a very delicate place.

"You're not much better." She huffed, and a system message appeared in front of her. "Huh?" She said to herself, reading the message silently. He didn't have to ask what it was about though. While his hp continued to decrease from that completely unprovoked attack, Leafa's cursor turned from green to orange.

* * *

It's been a little while, hasn't it? Well, due to computer problems (on my beta's side, this time), I haven't been able to upload this until now. Good news is that for once I haven't had any terribly crippling issues that have prevented me from writing. So I've got up to chapter 10 already finished. With my beta's computer fixed, there shouldn't be any more long wait between chapters for a while.

I'm not planning on showing every single floor, so there'll be a few time skips coming you may have noticed, most of the important cast of RWBY's shown up, and it won't be long before Beacon does as well.

Anyway, for your amusement, I've included an omake below. Just a little what-if from chapter 1. No idea if we'll be including omake in every chpter from here on out or not, but there's one here, so enjoy.

Anyone looking to give feedbacks on either the chapter for the omake, go ahead and review!

"Finally, I've given each of you a gift." The floating red figure of Akihiko Kayaba said as he drew his introduction speech to a close. Kirito quickly opened his inventory, where an item he had no recollection of getting appeared at the bottom of his screen. Tapping it, he materialized the item, which took the form of a mirror.

"What's that?" Leafa asked, snatching the mirror away from him, "Just a mirror?"

"You've got one too, don't you?" Kazuto asked her, and she checked her own inventory.

"Huh, yeah, I do." She nodded, a second mirror appearing in her other hand. "Here." she said, tossing it to him, "But what's the point of it? I doubt it's just to check our appearance..."

As if answering her question, dozens of people became engulfed in a blue light, and with every second more joined them until every player was covered in light. When the light finally faded away, Kirito was a few inches shorter than he was before, looking up to a different Klein.

For some reason, his eyes bulged as soon as he met Kirito's eyes, "L-Leafa? Or are you Kirito?"

"What are you talking about?" Kirito asked, messing with his now strangely tight armor, "Do I look like a girl to you?"

"Well... yeah..." Klein replied, making Kirito glare at him.

"Well, I'm Kirito." He sighed, turning around, "And this is clearly-" He starred in utter shock at the place where his little sister had been. She wasn't there. There wasn't even a girl there. It was... himself?!

"Brother..." she asked, eyes wide, "But... But... how is it...? I mean, why are you... me?"

"What's up with you guys?" Klein asked, looking from him to her.

Looking furiously around, Kirito finally saw a player with a shield strapped to his back and ran over. Sure enough, when he looked into the polished metal, the face looking back was Suguha Kirigaya's!

"So, what, were you guys just messing with me earlier?" Klein asked them, "Or was that 'sister' thing of yours just your way of rejecting me?"

"Klein, that's not it at all." Kirito shook his head, pointing to Leafa, "That's my body, and this-" pointing to himself, "Is hers."

"I have no idea how, but this is all your fault." Leafa said immediately.

"My fault!?" He protested, "How'd you figure that!? Who was it that just swiped the mirror like that?"

"You should've known!" She roared.

While the two bickered back and forth, Kayaba had continued his speech not that either of them or Klein actually paid any attention to him. When barrier keeping them in the courtyard finally fell apart, Leafa grabbed him and started to mutter under her breath.

"Let's get you out of here before you do something stupid in MY body..." She grumbled.

"Yeah, yeah..." Kirito sighed, "Just let me take this stupid armor off. I can't even breathe with it on." Without thinking, he removed the armor. Klein, who was following after them, suddenly flushed and got a nosebleed, and Leafa let out a scream. Kirito was sent face first into the floor from an overwhelming strike to the back of his head. Dazed and confused, he looked up at the two breasts growing out of his bare chest, then looked up just in time to see Leafa's sword flying at his head.


	5. Ice Cold Rage

RWBY chapter 5

Figured I'd give you a quick update to make up for that rather long break. Don't get used to it though, as I've only got about 5-6 more chapters prepared. But until then, I'll stop holding you from reading chapter 5. As always, my thanks to my friend and beta for pestering me to keep going. Couldn't have done it without you.

Just holding you up for one minute... Disclaimer: I don't own Sword Art Online or RWBY. Hence why I'm on instead of selling them as Light Novels and making MILLIONS!

Edit: Forget the lines breaks. Fixed.

* * *

"That wasn't..." Leafa said nervously, "I mean, why is it getting in the way of my exacting justice upon my brother?"

"Because if you decrease a player's hp, your cursor turns orange." Kirito sighed, "Back in the beta test, it went back to green after a little bit, but I don't know how it might've changed since then. It's possible that..."

"You mean it might not turn back?!" She shouted back, "But, but that's so-!"

"N-N-No, hold on!" Kirito said, putting his hands out defensively, "I'm sure that it'll turn back! I mean, it seems like too harsh a punishment to have it permanently orange just from causing a little bit of damage. But in the beta test, it only changed for about an hour of play time. I doubt it would be that low."

"So you mean to tell me that I won't be able to go back into town until this thing changes back?" She sighed, leaning up against the wall. "That sucks! It's all your fault, Kazuto!"

"I-It is not!" HE countered, "You're the one who attacked me, remember?!"

"Because you-!" Her face flushed again and she didn't continue. "Never mind. Let's get out and kill some stuff. I've got to work off some frustration, and it's them or you."

Chuckling nervously, Kirito had a thought, "Hey, Leafa." He said, stopping her from walking out of the room.

"What?" She asked grumpily.

"Why don't we split up and do a bit of solo training?" He suggested cautiously, "Both our levels are more than enough to survive any of the monsters we might find in here, so we should be alright."

Leafa's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, but she was clearly still angry with him. Turning back to the door, she said, "Do whatever you want."

Nodding, Kirito disbanded the party. "I'm going to go on ahead." He called out to her, but aside from a wave, she didn't respond.

* * *

Four days later, the high level players meet in the village of Taran for the boss strategy meeting. The number of players had increased since the first floor, though only a handful of the parties were present in both meetings. Yang's group, Kirito and Leafa, and-

"Alright, pipe down and listen up!" Kibaou shouted, calling the meeting to order, "The second floor boss room's been found! Now we need to form a raid crew and take him down!"

The groups all turned to talk among themselves, and ignored Kibaou's attempt to reestablish order until Leafa let out a deafening whistle.

"There'll be plenty of time to talk amongst ourselves later." She said calmly, "Can we keep going?"

"Before that." Kibaou said, walking towards her angrily, "What the hell are you two doing here?"

"Do you really have to ask that?" Leafa asked, "We're here to kill the boss. That's all."

"Why the hell should we let beaters like you fight!?" Kibaou's team mate shouted, and everyone started looking nervously at the two of them.

"That should be more than obvious." Kirito answered, placing a calming hand on Leafa's shoulder.

"Oh yeah?" Kibaou asked, "Why's that?"

"Because the two of us are worth more than your whole party." He said truthfully, "Our levels are higher, we know more about the boss's abilities than you, and you know it. You might not trust us. In fact, I don't care that you don't. But you won't scorn our help since without us, your chance of survival drops significantly."

"Big talk, cheater." The same member said, standing up and storming over to him, "Kibaou, don't waste your time with these two. We've got more than enough players without them."

"Sorry, but if they're not with us, I'm not taking part." Yang said, raising her hand. Blake and ruby both nodded their heads as well.

"...Let's get back on topic." Kibaou said, turning away from Leafa and Kirito without saying anything, "Now, the info broker's being stingy about the boss info, so we'll be going in blind."

"That's because the boss during the beta isn't the floor boss anymore." Kirito spoke up, "Baran the General Taurus was a mid boss in the dungeon, but during the beta, he was the floor boss."

"Funny, I don't recall running into a boss by that name." Kibaou called him out.

"I thought you wouldn't." Leafa nodded, "Of course, that might be because we killed him already, so..."

"The two of you?" Someone shouted, "On your own?!"

"...Yeah." Kirito answered after a minute. The truth would only make things worse anyway.

"They're lying!" Someone shouted behind him, "No way a two person party could beat a boss!"

In response, Leafa opened her menu and set up an open duel request, "If you think you're tough enough, bring it. If you're all talk, shut up so we can keep going."

Despite her challenge, however, no one accepted and the meeting slowly got back on track.

"So, that's the battle plan." Kibaou finally said two hours later, "We need to form seven strong parties to form the crew, so whenever your parties' done, come see me."

While the various small parties started to slowly merge, Kirito and Leafa sat all the way in the back.

"Looks like we're on our own." Leafa shrugged with a smile.

"Why's that?" Yang asked from behind her, making her jump.

"Where'd you come from!?" Leafa stuttered.

"Over there." Yang said, pointing over to Ruby and Blake who were still sitting at their previous place, "So, wanna join up? I don't mind letting your group take the lead."

"Yeah... I don't know if that's a good idea." Kirito said, scratching the back of his head.

"Why not?" Leafa and Yang both asked him with similar expressions.

"Look around." Kirito said, and they did. At least half of the parties were staring at the trio, whispering under their breath, "Just the fact that you're talking to a pair of Beaters like us will make them mistrust you. What'll happen if you party with us?'

"...He's right." Leafa sighed after a few minutes, "Sorry, Yang. But it's not worth it in the long run to party with us. We'll be alright on our own."

"You sure?" She asked them both, "Because I think I can speak for those two and say we don't really care if you're beaters or not. And if you're right and they don't trust us, well, we'll just party with you guys from now on."

"Nah." Kirito shook his head again, "You guys should find some other, more reputable party to join up with."

"...If you're sure." Yang said, waving to them and turning around to survey the area and the remaining parties. Unfortunately, the time spent trying to convince the stubborn beaters had allowed the other teams to group up. The only one left was a girl in white all the way in the back who'd turned down multiple party requests.

"Hey." Yang said, walking over to her.

"I'm not interested in joining your party." She said without even looking up.

"Then why are you here?" Yang asked her.

"I would think that would be obvious." She answered, finally turning to look at Yang.

"Well, you know that you won't get anywhere near the boss on your own." Yang reminded her, sending a party invite, "Besides, I'm not asking you to stay forever. Just give us a hand killing the boss and you can go your own way."

"Just for the boss raid?" She asked, eye brow raised.

"Just the boss raid." Yang promised, and she reluctantly joined the party. Glancing up at the corner of her screen, Yang extended her hand, "Looking forward to working with you, Weiss."

"Likewise." Weiss responded, getting to her feet and walking over to the others.

* * *

"Some things never change." Leafa sighed while she and Kirito waited in the bar for Kibaou to tell them he'd accept them as part of the raid crew, "You know, you could've joined up with Yang. I mean, at this point, I doubt that anyone would really care by this time next floor."

"Maybe, but..." Kirito sighed, leaning back in his bar chair, "If we teamed up with those three, we'd be way overpowered. That means that someone in our party would be pretty much guaranteed to get the Last Attack Bonus. And someone would make a big deal over us getting three in a row."

"Someone sounds pretty confident." she grinned, "I mean, even at our level, we could never hope to beat the floor boss on our own."

"Maybe, but we'll be dealing twice as much damage as everyone else." He shrugged, "So realistically, we're much more likely to finish it off."

"Still, you're awfully cocky for someone who's not even sur-" She started when she heard a ping. Kirito lazily opened his menu and the new message.

"We're in." He sighed, getting up, "Better get to sleep. Otherwise, we'll end up being tired for tomorrow's raid."

"Yeah, you're right.' Leafa shrugged, following after him, "What level are you anyway?"

"Hmm?" He asked without looking back.

"When you and I split up in the dungeon, you decided to go further into the dungeon, so you're level should be higher than mine, but what level are you exactly?" She asked.

"Night Sugu." He yawned without answering her question and entered into his room at the inn.

* * *

"Hey." Ruby said nervously to Weiss, their new teammate.

"What?" She asked, looking up from her book on fencing.

"Whacha doing?" Ruby asked, sitting next to her.

Weiss scooted a few feet away before she answered, "Reading."

"But why? I mean, Sword Art Online doesn't have that many books, does it?"

"You really don't know anything, do you?" Weiss sighed, closing the book, "See this? This book is sold by the local store, and reading it gives an increase in your Rapier skill. So unlike you, who still thinks this is a game, I'm actually making the most of my time. Now please leave me alone."

"Oh." Ruby said, looking down, crestfallen, and then walking away sadly.

"That seemed rather harsh." A voice said from next to Weiss, who jumped suddenly. Her hand landed on the hilt of her sword before she remembered that she was in a safe zone and couldn't be hurt. Turning towards the voice, she saw Blake step out of the shadows.

"What are you doing sneaking around over there?" Weiss snapped at her.

"Yang asked me to keep an eye on Ruby." Blake said truthfully, though without mentioning she was keeping an eye on Weiss too, "But don't you think that you were a bit harsh to Ruby?"

"What are you talking about?" Weiss scoffed at her, reopening her book to continue reading.

"I'm talking about the fact that she's a kid. Maybe you're right and she's not taking this seriously, or maybe you're wrong and she's just trying to cope with the reality she's facing." Blake snapped back, "She was trying to be nice and help you feel more accepted in the party. There was no excuse for you to snap at her like that."

"Who do you think you are to lecture me!?" Weiss said loudly, her book falling on the floor when she stood up to confront the one insulting her, "Do you have any idea who I a-"

"Weiss Schnee." Blake answered her, and she seemed to freeze like she hadn't actually expected Blake to call her out, "I know exactly who you are. And I'm not trying to lecture you." Turning to go back to her room, she added, "But next time, try and remember that not everyone is as strong as you, able to accept this game for what it is and fight even with that knowledge. That's why so many people haven't even left the Town of Beginnings."

Weiss stared at her silently as she walked up the stairs to the rooms.

* * *

The next day, the seven chosen parties assembled at entrance to the boss' room. The battle plan was pretty straightforward. All parties would surround the boss and attack at the same time, forcing the boss to turn in order to change targets and thus limiting its attacks as much as possible.

The forces in front, who would be drawing the first wave of attacks, consisted of an entire party of tanks in full armor with the best shields that the NPC blacksmiths sold. To either side were the flanking teams, which would focus on dealing as much damage as possible, but also had tanks to block whatever damage might come their way.

The remaining four parties were spread out behind it, and consisted mostly of those with light armor who couldn't take many direct hits from a boss, but had enough speed to either avoid the attacks altogether or at least block to limit the damage. Both Yang's team and Kirito's were among them, as was Kibaou (Who despite being armored, placed his party in the least likely place to be attacked). Any minions that it might summon would be dealt with by the weaker of the four rear parties.

With that extremely rough plan, the battle began surprisingly well. While the tanks held Asterios the Taurus King's attention, the remaining parties were able to use their strongest skills without fear of reprisal. Whenever the boss's attention drifted to one of the other parties, the tanks would have time to heal before gaining its attention again.

Once its hp dropped down to half, though, things started to turn ugly.

"They're spawning!" Kirito shouted as groups of three minions started to spawn in each of the corners of the boss room.

"We'll stop these three!" Yang shouted, breaking off from attacking Asterios to intercept the three wild bulls charging at them from behind. Ruby and Blake hurried to help her while Weiss stayed to attack the boss.

"Leafa, let's go!" Kirito shouted, running towards the entrance to block the bulls from hitting the tanks from behind. "I'll take these three!"

"Got it!" She called out, attacking the second group. But their response wasn't at all what she'd expected to happen. After she'd attacked all of them to lure them away from the others, they didn't change direction and target her. Instead, they kept right on charging.

"Leafa, be careful!" Kirito shouted, knocking back each of his bulls, "They don't use the same AI as the other monsters!"

"I've got it!" she called back, trying her best to keep them away from the others. But none of her skills were inflicting enough damage or enough knockback to keep up.

"Kirito!" She shouted to her brother, who wasn't having too much trouble with his. He turned to her and knocked his three back again before charging over to her with sonic leap. Quickly, she pulled out one of her strength potions and watched her hp start going back up. Her own bulls were being held back easily by her brother, but the ones he had been attacking were free to charge to tanks from behind.

Surprisingly, though, they ignored the tanks as well. When they arrived at the boss, it ignored the players attacking it and turned its attention instead to them. With a single hand, all three were destroyed, but the boss's hp shot up, regaining an entire bar in one move.

"We can't let any more get through!" Kirito shouted, managing to take out on of the ones he was attacking, "Leafa, take the other one!"

"R-Right!" She stuttered before attacking the remaining monster. One on one, she had almost no trouble with it, and a few short skills later, the beast fell in defeat.

"Let's go help the others!" Kirito roared, pointing over to the party that was having a hard time holding back the final group.

"Right!" She nodded, her hp restored.

"Weiss, look out!" Ruby shouted across the room, and Leafa turned to see one of the boars get away from Yang's group. But instead of avoiding the tanks like the previous ones, this one charged at the white haired swordswoman still combatting the boss. Too late, she turned to see what her teammate was yelling and was sent flying to the side, her hp dropping like a stone. The boss grabbed the boar, and its hp recovered slightly before it started to advance on the downed Weiss.

"Go!" Kirito shouted, "I'll help these guys! Go help her!"

"Y-Yeah, alright!" Leafa said, charging back to intercept the boss before it could attack the wounded Weiss. Meanwhile, Ruby and Blake were tending to her while Yang was demolishing the remaining boar.

"Keep it up!" Kirito shouted at the rest of the raid group who were stunned by Wiess's attack, "We've got this fight won! Just a bit more!"

"Y-Yeah!" One of the other captains shouted, "Come on!"

"Yeah!"

The crew swarmed the boss en masse, and with the remaining boars defeated before making it even close to the boss, its hp continued to fall. Finally, it was a definitive slash from the recovered Weiss that brought the boss down.

"WE DID IT!" The raid group roared as one, all of them receiving a message detailing their winnings. Kirito and Leafa both closed their windows, having received nothing but some col, but still they laughed with the others. The fun and games didn't last long though, as the drama unfolding in the back of the room quickly gathered all of their attention.

"Congratulations, Weiss..." Ruby said timidly.

"Really?" Weiss asked, eyebrow raised, "That's all you have to say after almost getting me killed?"

"What? No, I mean, that was an acciden-" Ruby stuttered, trying to explain herself, but Weiss just stamped her foot.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to be in the same party as a little kid like you! This is all just some game to you isn't it?" Weiss glared.

"That's not true!" Yang said in defense of her sister, "That's completely untrue! Ruby was trying her bes-"

"Her 'best' isn't good enough!" Weiss shouted, "We're fighting for our lives out here and she still acts like she's playing a game! Maybe you don't care if you make it out of this stupid death game, or maybe you think that we'll never make it so we might as well enjoy it, but I fully intend to live through this stupid game and idiots like her have no place on the front lines if they don't even understand what's going on!"

"Weiss, that's enough!" Blake said, stepping between Weiss and Ruby, "You may be upset at Ruby for making a mistake, but you went too far there."

"Then you're no different than they are." Weiss shrugged, opening her menu, "Now that this battle is done, I will be leaving."

"Not a moment too soon." Yang glared as Weiss' name disappeared from the list.

"Oh, and before I go." Weiss said, turning to Ruby one more time, "You should just go back to floor one. At your current level, you shouldn't have any problem with surviving in the town of beginnings. Just leave the fighting to people who actually know what they're doing." With Ruby looking utterly hopeless, Weiss walked through the back of the boss room and through the corridor to floor three.

* * *

"That stuck up little bitch!" Yang roared angrily as she destroyed the first tree in the misty forest of floor three, "What the hell is wrong with her!? Little miss perfect needs to wake up, and I know just the person to give her the beating of a lifetime!"

"Yang, don't." Ruby shook her head, "It's not worth it."

"Not worth it?" Yang asked her, "Ruby, she deserves MUCH worse than that! I want to see just how much the game's recovery engine will work when I ripped her apart!"

"Let's get moving." Blake said, trying to keep them on topic, "We should get to the next town by nightfall. The last thing we need is to be out off-guard by unfamiliar monsters at night while we're running low on supplies."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Yang sighed, "Let's go. Remind me the next time we see that bitch to give her a piece of my mind. No one attacks my little sister like that and walks away unscathed."

"Yang, really, it's okay." Ruby said, trying to soothe her, "Weiss was probably just a little upset because she almost died..."

"That's no excuse." Yang and Blake said at the same time.

"A little upset would be throwing a fit, which she did." Yang explained, "But she crossed the line to flat-out attacking you for making a mistake! She went too far."

"As expected of a Schnee. She thinks that she can do no wrong." Blake practically hissed, "And that last comment was completely out of line."

"I... don't really think that it is." Ruby whispered, and Yang froze up.

"What do you mean?" Yang asked her, "Ruby, don't let what she said get to you, okay? You're amazing, so don't quit just because of a little mistake. You'll get better, and you'll learn from that mistake. So, really, there's no reason to-"

"But I won't." Ruby shook her head after they'd made it safely to the main city of the third floor, "I don't think I can keep this up. I'm just no good. None of my skills seem to work like you and Blake, and I'm always holding you guys back. Besides, next time I make a mistake, it could be the two of you who..."

"Ruby, don't-" Blake started, but Ruby just shook her head.

"It's okay, really. " She smiled, opening her menu and leaving the party, "I think floor three's a good place to stop. Both of you, feel free to message me, okay?"

"Ruby-!" Yang started, but her little sister just waved and disappeared into the portal back to floor one.

* * *

Oh no, Ruby's gone!

Just saying, but the story won't change no matter how hard you complain. I've already got chapter 6 written, so the future's set in stone. As always, reviews are welcome. Until next time, Itachikage out!


	6. Red Like Roses

RWBY 6

Well, the last chapter was clearly the end of the story, so I just thought I'd wrap this up with a little epilogue...

Okay, I lied. Seriously, did anyone think that Ruby would actually leave that easily? This chapter is mostly Ruby's story, so read on and enjoy.

Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Sword Art Online or RWBY. No money is being made by writing this story.

* * *

Ruby sighed from her room in the town of beginnings. Over two weeks had passed since she'd left Yang's party, and despite numerous attempts to convince her otherwise from both Yang and Blake (Both swearing to force Weiss to apologize), she refused them. In all honesty, she was much more at ease now than she ever was on the higher floors. Here, she could attack all the monsters she wanted without fear, and it would be easy for her to make enough col to survive even without the considerable amount she had from partying with her sister.

"Really, this is the lif-" She started before sighing, "Who am I trying to kid here? I'm bored out of my mind! There's gotta be some way I can pass the time."

And so, she decided to open Yang's present. Opening her inventory, she brought up a book entitled, 'Argo's guide to the secrets of Aincrad (Abridged edition)'.

For the next hour, she enjoyed a nice leisurely read of the first few chapters, which included everything from premium monster spawns (The locations weren't listed until you paid) to hidden quests with huge payouts (The locations were still hidden). Nothing really peaked her interest, though, until she started the chapter on side skills.

"Blacksmithing..." Ruby said in awe as she read through the first section, "That sounds like fun! Maybe I could even help Yang." At the back of the book was the contact information of the player who wrote it, so she eagerly sent the pm. A minute later, she receive a message back telling her to be at the teleport gate in five minutes.

At the designated time, a girl in a brown hood with whisker-like makeup on her face. In her left hand, she carried a small covered basket. Seeing Ruby, she waved her over to a nearby alley.

"So, Yang's little sister, to what do I owe the pleasure?" She asked with a slight bow.

"Well, I was looking through your book, and I saw something about blacksmithing-"

"Eight hundred Col." Argo said immediately, reaching into the basket and pulling out a strawberry.

"Yeah, that's great, but what's that?" Ruby asked, her eyes locked on to the strawberry in her hand.

Argo didn't miss that, and responded with a small grin, "Five col to try it, seven hundred for the information."

"Information please." Ruby said, manipulating the window as quickly as she was able, and Argo accepted almost immediately.

"On the other side of floor one, there's a small farm house on the outskirts of Tolbana." Argo started as soon as the transaction was completed, "Rent the spare bedroom for eighty col a night for a week, than accept the request to work as a farmhand. After two days of work, you'll receive the farming skill, and a small plot of land to use for your own personal garden. Strawberries can be grown at level eight, and take roughly seventy-two hours to grow." With another grin, she added, "I can tell you a quick way to go from level one to level 7, but that'll cost you fifteen hundred col."

"No thanks. I'll be fine on my own." Ruby smiled.

"Well, suit yourself. So, did you want that blacksmith information? Since you're a repeat customer, I'll knock it down to six hundred..?"

"No thanks." Ruby responded.

"You know how to reach me if you change your mind." Argo waved, "I'll let you know when an updated version of the guide is available. For a price, of course."

Ruby waved her off until she stepped into the portal, than sent Yang a quick message before checking out of the room and starting the journey back to Tolbana.

It didn't take nearly as long as the first time. With her increased agility, she covered the ground in a single afternoon, though her sword was practically rendered useless in the process. It didn't take long for her to find the farmhouse, and by nightfall, she was sleeping peacefully in the comfortable bed after a nice warm glass of milk.

* * *

The next week passed by quickly, and during the day she amused herself with a repeatable quest from one of the neighboring farms to clear out the snakes that were infesting their crops. The reward was only a few hundred col, but the snakes gave pretty considerable experience for floor one, and every now and then, they'd drop an item she could sell.

On the morning of the eighth day since she arrived, the owner of the house waved her over as soon as she stepped out of her room.

"You know, if you're interested, we could use a hard worker around here." He told her, "You interested? We'll waive the fee for the upper floor, plus pay a little extra."

The menu opened in front of her, she tapped the confirmation window, and her outfit changed. Instead of her usual black dress, she was wearing an old pair of jeans and a plain white shirt. Beside her name, she now had an icon shaped like a watering can.

"Happy to have you." The farmer said as soon as she looked back to him, "Now, would you mind hoeing the fields? I think the hoe's along the side of the barn."

"Sure thing." She said, running off towards the barn. As he'd said, the hoe was leaning up against the outer wall of the barn, and when she picked it up, she could see the ground now had an hp gauge. Grinning, she went to work.

Despite how easy it sounds to kill the ground, it was significantly more work than she'd thought. It took her most of the day to till the ground around the farm, and fell asleep almost as soon as she lay down on the bed.

The next day, she woke up at the crack of dawn, and the farmer again waved her over.

"Thanks for the great work yesterday." He smiled at her, "The misses has breakfast on the table, than we've gotta get back to work. With the fields nice and ready for us, we can start planting. It'll take us most of the day, so the sooner we get started, the better."

"Sure thing." Ruby responded, following him into the kitchen. The breakfast was the same as it had been since she arrived, the same roll as was sold in town, along with a healthy dose of sweet cream that actually made it edible.

Afterward, she and the farmer left for the field. A trade window popped up in front of her, "Here. You'll need these for today."

Ruby nodded, and accepted the trade. A seed dibber, a watering can, and a number of seeds were transferred into her inventory, along with the hoe and spade from yesterday. Once the trade was completed, he took a step back, "Well, I'll take the west field. Ruby, can you take care of the east?"

"Yes sir." She said as soon as the confirmation window appeared, and she ran off to the other field. Removing her seed dibber from her inventory, she started to sow the seeds into the ground. Like he said, it took most of the day to plant all of the seeds, but when she'd finished, she found that she had some left over.

"Thank you for your help, Ruby." The farmer said, wiping the sweat from his forehead, "You're getting pretty good at this."

"Thank you sir." She smiled back, and a window appeared in front of her. A new skill notification.

"In fact, why don't you keep the extra seeds? You can use the small alcove behind the farm for whatever you like to plant. I've got plenty of seeds if you need some more."

"Thank you very much!" she said eagerly, racing outside to start growing her own crops despite it being dark out already. Unfortunately, she ran right into someone else.

"Ouch... "She grumbled, picking herself up off the floor, "sorry about that."

"It's fine." The person she ran into replied. It was a middle-aged man with messy grey hair, and wearing a simple black suit with a green scarf around his neck, "tell me, is the room that was for rent around here still available?"

"Um... Sorry, but I'm actually renting it." She replied, and he nodded his head calmly.

"Yes, I see. Well, I'm sorry to have wasted your time since you were clearly in a hurry, Ruby." He said, turning to walk away.

"Excuse me, but how'd you know my name?" She called out, and he stopped a few feet away.

"I saw you during the first floor boss battle. Quite an excellent job. I'm surprised to see you've left the front lines. Your sister is still tearing apart the upper floors, unless my information is mistaken." He noted, "So I'm curious why you of all people wouldn't be with her."

"I'd only slow her down." Ruby answered, shaking her head, "Yang's amazing, and I'm just Ruby."

"Slowing her down? I don't think so." He said without turning around, "You're still young, Ruby. Yang has experiences that you don't, but your potential for growth leaves her far behind. I don't think you'd slow her down so much as she would hold you back."

"That's impossible." Ruby shook her head weakly, "I was garbage during the second battle."

"Perhaps." he admitted, "But if you leave, you'll never grow past that. Whether you stay or go is your choice." Walking away, he added, "Of course, either way, I expect great things from you, Ruby. One day, I might call upon you to help me bring this game to an end."

"Who are you?" She called after him since he was intent on leaving.

"My name?" he stopped momentarily, "You may call me Ozpin."

* * *

Two weeks had passed since her meeting with the strange Ozpin, and it had been an eventful time to say the least. The third floor had been cleared thanks to the hard work of the players fighting on the front lines, though apparently both Yang and Blake didn't take part. The seemingly random assortment of players from the first few floors were finally starting to organize into guilds thanks to the formation quest. Neither Blake or Yang accept any of the numerous offers they'd received, and it wasn't hard to guess that no one was in a position to turn ninety-nine percent of the players against them by accepting the 'beaters' into their guild, so Kirito and Leafa were basically on their own. Still, it was at least good to know that boss raids would be more organized in the future, which meant that Yang wouldn't be in as much danger as she was when it was every man for themselves.

Ruby herself was keeping busy, of course. Her days were split from tending to the farmer's fields along with her own. The work wasn't nearly as difficult or as time-consuming as it had been the first two days, leaving her more than enough time to once again wander the area. Numerous new quests had spawned in the area, most offering extra experience in farming, along with new seeds or upgraded tools.

As a result of the various quests, her farming skill soared. In less than two days, she'd passed the level eight she needed for strawberries, and had progressed far enough to purchase and use plant pots to expand her previously tiny plot of land.

One day, just after she harvested her strawberries and dividing the harvest between selling, sending to Yang, and keeping for herself, she headed into town to sell them to a player merchant who gave her a good price. Along the way, she noticed an NPC by the wheat field that hadn't been there before. Like Yang had taught her, she opened her quest list, and sure enough, a new quest was displayed.

"Harbingers of Grimm?" She said to herself before walking over to the NPC.

He turned away from the intersection as soon as she approached him, "Traveler, I need your help!" he said urgently, "There's something hiding in my wheat field that keeps attacking my farmhands! If I can't harvest the wheat, my entire livelihood is ruined! Please, help me!"

The confirmation window opened as soon as he finished, and she opened her menu quickly to confirm she was fully equipped for her first battle in a while before she answered, "Sure thing, leave it to me."

"Thank you, Traveler!" The man bowed repeatedly, "Please be careful! The creature likes to sneak up on you from behind. Here-" a long scythe appeared in his hand, and he extends it to her, "use this to clear out the wheat around you. Please be careful!"

"Sure thing." She answered, accepting the scythe and walking through the gate to the wheat field. The scythe was heavy and awkward in her hands, and she wasn't able to swing it effectively. So, stowing the item and drawing her sword, she slowly advanced into the wheat field.

For minutes on end, she shifted through the field, listening intently for the movement of whatever she was supposed to be fighting against. It wasn't until she reached the center of the field that it struck. A pair of curved fangs sunk into her shoulder, ripping through her light armor and taking a chunk of her hp with it. Quickly spinning around, she stabbed after the shadow in the wheat. A split second before the strike hit, the same attack hit her sword arm. Her attack missed the shadow, and it disappeared back into the wheat.

Turning back around, she again stabbed at the shadow concealed behind the wheat, and again, it struck.

Quickly, she drank a healing potion, but while she was still healing, whatever it was attacked again. Her hp dropped down to red, and for the first time since leaving Yang and Blake, she was looking death in the face.

"Darn it." She growled, quickly looking around to try and find where it would strike from, "Without seeing what the heck I'm fight..."

Remembering the scythe that the quest-giver had given her, she manipulated the menu and brought it out. The blade was still too awkward to use, but she managed a halfhearted swing. As soon as she did, the system took over, and she spun around, shredding through the wheat in a large circle around her before stowing the scythe again.

With its hiding place exposed, the creatures was revealed to be a massive two-headed snake. One head was black, and the other white. The skill Ruby had used appeared to have inflicted a considerable amount of damage, but it still had more health than she did. Still, the situation was tipped in her favor. Whatever level it might be, this was still floor one. She'd be able to avoid the attacks long enough for her health potion to restore her to full health as long as she could see it.

The black head struck first, and she sidestepped the attack and delivered a single strike on the black snake's forehead. The white bone-like features that should have been as vulnerable as the rest of it instead proved too strong. The sword shattered against it, and vanished in a shower of polygons.

"Not now!" she shouted loudly, running backwards and opening her menu. To her dismay, she had no further swords. After leaving the front lines, she sold her extra swords and only kept one for any necessary combat. She'd never dreamed that a monster on this floor would actually be able to break her sword, and even if it happened, she'd be able to escape easily. Now though, she was trapped in cage with a monster that was very capable of killing her, and there was no way she could escape without giving it ample opportunity to do so.

The snake's hp only dropped slightly, and it had too much health to kill it with just Martial arts.

Quickly looking through her inventory for something, anything, she could use as an impromptu weapon. Even a broom can deal damage to a monster if you hit hard enough. But all she had was a spade, a rake, and-

Even though it was unwieldy, the scythe was able to do considerable damage to it before, so it was better than nothing. Bringing it out, though, she was pleasantly surprised. What was an overly heavy weapon was now light as a feather. She could easily swing it with one hand.

Not about to question it, she charged forward. The snakes both lunged at her, and she slid underneath of them. The tip of the scythe started to glow white, and she let the system take over. With all the speed she could muster, she charged past it, and the blade of her scythe cut it in half.

The two halves started to flail around wildly before shattering like the sword.

Collapsing to the ground after what can only be described as a rush of adrenaline, Ruby slowly drank another hp potion. Her hp seemed to raise much slower than usual, and she kept looking around as though expecting the snakes to return. But they didn't, and she slowly started to relax.

"Okay, so, not doing that again." She sighed, picking herself back up and walking back through the remains of the wheat field to the quest nap.

"You made it back!" He said excitedly, "Did you do it? Is it dead?!"

"Yeah, it's dead." She replied, and he started to cheer.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" He whooped, "I can't believe it! I thought I was in so much trouble, but now I can get back to work! Here, take your reward! You've really earned it!" A window appeared, showing the details of an item called 'Cavalry Scythe'.

"Another scythe..?" She asked herself before looking at her skill list. At the very bottom, with only a level of one, was the scythe skill.

"Wow..!" she cheered, "My own skill! I can't believe it!"

Eagerly, she took out the weapon, and was surprised that while it wasn't as heavy as the other had been at first, it wasn't light enough for her to fight the way she was used to. Her strength was a few points too low for her to swing it around like she would like to. But its might was much greater then any of the swords Ruby had seen, even on the upper floors.

"So, you're the first to clear it?" A familiar voice said from behind her, making her yelp and drop the large scythe on her foot. Thankfully, since outside of the field was safe-zone, her HP didn't fall. But it still hurt like hell.

"Argo!" She said, picking up the scythe and stowing it into her inventory, "You shouldn't sneak up on people!"

"But if I didn't, how could I gather information?" Argo grinned back, "So, a scythe..? That's a new one. Certainly wasn't available at during the beta test, but what'll you do? Any other rewards? What was the quest like? Did you need any specialized equipment? What about levels? Prereqs? Come-on, you've gotta give me some juicy details."

"W-Well, I don't really know..." Ruby stuttered, "Why do you want to know?"

"Are you kidding me?" Argo asked, staring at her in disbelief, "Something like this will fetch me a fortune. Come-on! Gimme the details, and you can have one piece of info free of charge. You still want to know about blacksmithing? Easily done! Or maybe you want to know where to get the rare white watermelon seeds that can be used to create potions? Name it, and we'll swap."

"..." Ruby silently thought as Argo looked at her, almost pleading for the information, before she remembered the strange man from before, "What do you know about a player called Ozpin?"

Argo didn't seem the least bit surprise by the question, which puzzled her slightly, "So, he met up with you after all?"

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked, and she shrugged her shoulders.

"Well, it's not some great secret." she answered, "Because he came to me about three weeks ago, asking for the locations of all the players who have taken part in boss raids. And it's a point of pride that I'll give the customer what they want... unless someone pays me more to keep quiet. Anyway, you want information on Ozpin? You've got it."

"What about him?" Ruby asked her, and Argo gestured towards a nearby NPC house. Once they reached the door, Argo manipulated the menus so quickly, Ruby couldn't even see what she was pressing, but eventually they were alone in the back room with the door locked.

"So, he asked me to keep this whole thing a secret, but I sold info on you without giving you a chance to outbid him, so I guess it's only fair." Argo grinned as the NPC brought them two cups of tea, "Now, Ozpin's a beginner, though he's no amateur. He's completed a number of highly difficult quests on his own since the start of SAO. Recently, though, as I mentioned earlier, he's been doing some scouting."

"Scouting?" Ruby asked, turning her head slightly and Argo nodded.

"Right. Scouting. See, on floor three, there's a quest that allows the player to form a guild. Ozpin was the first player to complete it, and he did it solo no less. Despite that, he hasn't decided to form a guild yet. He wanted his guild to be, and I'm quoting him here, 'A beacon of hope to all those shivering in the darkness of the Town of Beginnings.' Basically, a guild to clear the game. Problem is, no normal guild has a chance of doing that, so he wanted to bring the best of the best under his leadership and clear the game without any senseless loss of life."

"And is that bad?" Ruby asked since Argo seemed somewhat annoyed when she was speaking.

"No, but ideology like that pisses me off for some reason." Argo responded with a shrug, "Maybe it's because I don't trust people who claim to do something for someone else's benefit. Anyway, he bought the last known locations of every 'clearer' to scout them for this guild of his. Since you took part in two of the battles thus far, I would imagine he was quite interested in seeing you. Your sister too, though she'd be a lot harder to track up on floor four. Word is that they found the entrance to the labyrinth. If he hasn't found them already, I imagine he will during the boss raid. Any other questions?"

"Nothing I ca-" Ruby respond, and Argo's grin widened.

"Then, time for your end of the bargain. And don't skimp on the details!"

* * *

After a grueling three hour Q&amp;A with Argo, Ruby staggered back to the farm with barely enough energy to check on her plants before collapsing into bed. Despite her mind screaming at her to sleep already, she kept replaying the earlier conversation with Argo. Even though they were both beginners, Ozpin's goal was trying to protect everyone, but she was only concerned with her and Yang. As long as Yang was safe, she didn't even know if she'd be sad if something happened to her other friends, Kirito, Leafa, and Blake.

Just the thought made her feel awful.

Opening her menu, she looked through the remains of her equipment from fighting with Yang, Her remaining armor was pretty much wrecked. After the battle this afternoon, she only had maybe another day of fighting before it broke completely. More importantly, since her sword broke, the only weapon she had was the scythe. Her supply of potions was pretty much empty too.

"I've only got enough col to take care of one..." She said, checking how much money she had, "I could ask Yang for some, but I really don't want to bother her..."

Eventually, she decided on a risky strategy. Removing her armor from her inventory, she discarded them and watched as they shattered, their durability reduced to zero. With her overall weight lessened, she now barely had enough strength to make the cavalry scythe usable enough to fight.

"Tomorrow, I'll go find Yang on floor four." She decided, storing her scythe and finally falling asleep.

* * *

Her alarm woke her at the crack of dawn the next morning, and she climbed out of bed.

"So, you're done working here then?" The farmer asked her when she choose the quit option from her menu, "Well, thanks for the help anyway. If you're looking for work, come on back. We'll find you something."

"Thank you very much for the help." She said, running back out the door towards the Tolbana. Stepping onto the teleport gate, she cleared her throat and teleported to the one city on Floor four that she knew of, "Teleport, Lobria!"

The familiar city disappeared in a flash of blue light, reforming as a bustling tropical resort filled with players and NPCs alike.

"So, this is floor four?" She said, looking around while walking away from the teleport gate that was continually spitting out new players, "It's... not at all what I was expecting..."

The city wasn't nearly as large as the other cities she'd seen on the first two floors. Despite that, the streets were lined with dozens of players running many small market stalls with everything from potions and even a few crystals to weapons, armor, and blacksmithing boosts. Even though she desperately wanted to browse through the weapons, she was able to pull herself to the potion stalls and spending what remained of her col to replenish her supply.

"Oh well... "She sighed, walking away from the shopping center and heading down Main Street towards the gate.

"Jaune, wait!" A female voice said from behind her, and she turned to see a blond haired boy in what looked like beginner armor running down the street and knocking her over, followed by a red haired girl with a dark red plate mail, "Jaune, we haven't even restocked our potions yet!"

"Oh." The boy stopped and turned around, "Right. I knew that. W-Where did you think I was going anyway? To fight monsters? Not with this many potions..."

"Honestly Jaune..." the red haired girl sighed, rubbing her forehead, "Be more careful." Offering Ruby a hand, she smiled, "I'm so sorry about my friend. He's just a little overly eager. I promise he didn't mean it."

"It's alright, really." Ruby assured her, picking herself back up, "My name's Ruby. And you are?"

"Pyrrha." the red head answered, "And his name is Jaune."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head, "I was just excited, you know? About the potions, I mean."

"Sure." Ruby giggled at the obvious lie.

"So, what are you doing up here?" Jaune said with a slight blush.

"Well, I'm trying to meet up with my friends, but I don't really know where they are..." Ruby chuckled nervously this time, "What about you?"

"I'm here to help the clearers, of course!" Jaune answered, puffing his chest out, "I'm sure you've heard about how disorganized they are, and how they can't possibly clear the game without some kind of leadership. And I'm sure you must have heard of the amazing Jaune who single-handedly defeated a field boss on floor two?"

"Nope. Never heard of you." Ruby said, shooting down Jaune's lie.

"...Oh." He said in a weak voice, "Well, I guess it's not exactly making the rounds in the town of beginnings..."

"Actually, I helped clear floor two..." Ruby said, wincing slightly at the reminder of her failure during the boss raid.

"So, you're waiting for your friends around here than?" Pyrrha asked to ease the tension between Jaune and Ruby.

"Not exactly..." Ruby sighed, "I was just thinking I'd run into them at the raid meeting for the floor four boss, so I'm justing gonna make my way there and..."

"Alone?" Pyrrha asked, raising an eyebrow, "That's pretty dangerous. Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"It'll be alright..." Ruby said positively, "At least, I think it will..."

Pyrrha stared at her, clearly not impressed, but thankfully Jaune interjected.

"Then why not party with us?" he asked, "Once we meet up with a few of our friends, we'll be heading that way as well, so if you're willing wait a few minutes, it'd be a lot safer."

"You know, I think I'll take you up on that." Ruby smiled, and Pyrrha breathed a sigh of relief.

"Good to have you, Ruby." She said as Ruby accepted the party invitation Jaune sent her.

"Now we've just gotta meet up with Nora and Ren." Jaune said, shaking Ruby hand before explaining, "They're our other party members. Nora just had to get her weapon improv-"

"Had to!" A familiar voice said angrily from behind them, "Of course I had to! If I didn't take good care of my baby, how could I possibly beat the boss!?"

"Nora, please be quiet." Another, male voice responded to her, "Sorry for the delay, Jaune. She blew through all her money giving it a plus eleven."

"Figured." Pyrrha chuckled dryly, "Well, we have a new team mate. This is-"

"Ruby." She introduced herself.

"It's you!" The girl, who she now recognized as the hammer girl from floor two, "How've ya been? Doing Alright? Whacha got there? New weapon? Lemme see, lemme see!"

"Nora." The man next to her said calmly when Ruby's head started to spin from the rapid questions.

"Yes Ren?" She asked with an expressionless face.

"You're being annoying." He answered, extending his hand to Ruby, "Nice to meet you again, Ruby. I'm Ren. And this annoying one is-"

"How rude!" Nora huffed, "I'm Nora!"

"Everyone ready to get started than?" Jaune asked once the introductions were out of the way, "We'll be heading straight to the final town of the floor, and with any luck we'll make it for the boss raid. Once that's done, we'll be golden!"

"Roger that." Ren answered, hands taking the set of Katar off his waist.

"Yippee!" Nora added, cheerfully swinging her hammer around.

"Understood." Pyrrha said, unsheathing her own sword and shield.

"Um... yeah, let's go." Ruby replied nervously at the enthusiastic response from the team.

"Relax, Ruby." Pyrrha laughed, patting her on the back, "You're one of us now. No need to feel so worried."

"She's right, Ruby." Jaune agreed with her.

"Thanks, everyone." She smiled at the both of them, "Let's go!"

* * *

"Boy that was fun!" Yang sighed contently as she lay back on the inn's couch, "Don't you think?"

"Not particularly." Blake responded, sipping tea from the nearby table, "I think you're the only one having fun in this game, Yang."

"Such a waste." Yang replied, "What's the point of playing a game twenty-four seven if you can't even enjoy it? I mean, sure, this isn't exactly how I'd want to play a game if I had a choice. But this is still a game, so we might as well enjoy it while we have the chance, right?"

"Yang?" a familiar voice said from behind them, "And Blake? Fancy running into you two here."

"Hey, Leafa." Yang said, looking over at the pair that just walked into the inn, "Kirito. So, what are a pair of shady, disreputable characters like you doing in a nice place like this?

"Well, we were wandering around and thought that we'd stop in to sleep." Leafa responded without acknowledging her joking question, "That, and Kirito was looking for someone to mug, and this place looks like the nicest inn around. So we're also looking for easy marks."

"Bull." Yang snorted into her tea.

"You two have probably made more than just about everyone in here combined just from killing monsters." Blake agreed, "So it wouldn't be a very smart move on your parts."

"Maybe, but it would be fun." Kirito shrugged, sitting next to Yang on the couch, "You guys been alright?"

"Fair enough, I guess." Yang answered, "Leveling's slowed down a bit since the dungeon opened, so it looks like we're approaching the upper limit for this floor. You guys?"

"The same, I guess." Leafa said, sitting across from Blake and ordering a drink from the NPC waitress, "Though given that we're 'beaters', I imagine that we're probably a higher level than you are."

"We'll have to see some time." Yang smirked, "But until then, what say we get a bite to eat? Blake's treat, of course."

"As long as you're paying me back." Blake responded without even looking up from her menu.

"That'd be great." Leafa said, glaring at her brother, "Since someone wasted most of our money on clothes... You're such a girl!"

"What can I say; that coat's bonuses were awesome." Kirito said without complainant, "And besides, didn't you buy a matching set?"

"Well, I think we'd look pretty badass." Leafa shrugged, "And it's not like we've got anything better to buy."

"Except food and shelter." Kirito reminded her casually, "Speaking of..."

"Yeah, Yeah..." Leafa sighed, "So, we'd be happy to take you up on your offer, Yang."

"Great!" Yang smiled, taking a seat at the table with Kirito, Leafa, and Yang.

"Fine, whatever." Blake said, closing the menu and calling the waiter back over, "I imagine that you're both getting ready for the boss fight?"

"Yeah." Kirito said after dismissing the menu he used to order the food, "At the rate the dungeon's getting cleared, though, I would say that we'll both grow another level or two before the raid."

"Just curious, but which of you is a higher level?" Yang asked with a devious smirk, "Could it be that the little sister has surpassed you, Kirito?"

"We're equal at the moment." Kirito answered, "Which is saying something since she's been killing monsters like a maniac."

"Speaking of killing things, how's Ruby doing?" Leafa asked Yang without acknowledging Kirito's jab at her.

"She's fine. Last I heard, she was farming down on floor one." Yang smiled, "Remind me to pay her a visit after we clear the boss."

"We'll come with you." Leafa said, and Kirito nodded.

"Yeah, that should be fun. I've always wanted to try the fruit in Aincrad, so maybe she can spare a bit?"

"Kirito!" Leafa scolded loudly, "Can't you think with anything but your stomach!?"

"I could, but I'm hungry!" Kirito replied, and all four of them started to laugh.

* * *

So, there you have it. It'll be mainly Ruby's story until she meets up with the others, and by now you've probably noticed that the core members of beacon have started to make their move. And Ruby finally has her scythe as many of you have been asking about. As always, reviews are welcome, and I'll be uploading the next chapter whenever my beta gets back to me. See you next time.


	7. Red Reaper

Rwby 7

Hey guys. Been a while, huh? To make up for the lack of updates, this chapter's a decent bit longer then usual.

Disclaimer: I don't own SAO or RWBY and no money is being made from this story. If it did, I can promise I'd have a better computer then what I have now.

* * *

"Nora, switch!" Ren shouted after he slipped past the shark-like monster's defenses and inflicted a four hit combo on it. Instantly, the orange haired girl jumped up and the hammer in her hands started to glow.

"Fore!" She laughed, swinging it up and launching it into the air, "You're up, Pyrrha!"

"Got it!" The redhead replied, jumping with her sword glowing bronze, the one handed sword skill, Vertical arc. The two slashes dug into the shark's side, depleting its hp to barely a sliver before it escaped back into the water. Instead of running, though, it changed targets to Jaune.

"Finish it, Jaune!" Pyrrha called out as it sped towards him.

"R-Right!" Jaune said, his sword shaking unsteadily in his hand. The massive shark reared up, and Jaune's hand froze up. The shark opened its mouth wide, but Jaune didn't move to defend himself with his shield either.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha shouted, running to help him, but she'd never make it in time...

"I've got it!" Ruby shouted, drawing her scythe for the first time since coming to floor four. The blade glowed blue as she used her sword skill, Reap. The blade ripped the shark in half, and in the process the last of its hp was depleted. It fell back into the water and shattered into a mass of polygons.

"T-Thanks." Jaune sighed, collapsing to the ground, "You saved me..."

"I-It's really not a problem..." She assured him as the others hurried over to check on them.

"Are you alright?" Pyrrha asked worriedly.

"Yeah, fine." Jaune responded, shaking his head clear before he cleared his throat, "So, shall we move on? How many more of these things do we have to kill?"

"Six." Pyrrha answered, looking at her quest log, "After that, we'll be able to cross the river to the second half of the floor."

"So we have to kill six more of those things?" Jaune groaned, "But it took all of us to kill that one!"

"It'll be fine." Nora assured him, "As long as we stay together, we'll be fine."

"The important thing, Jaune, is you." Pyrrha said, looking him in the eyes.

"W-W-What about me?" He stuttered nervously, "I-I-I was just having a bad moment, that's all!"

"Jaune, if you aren't sure that you'll be able to fight, then stay in the back." Pyrrha said firmly, "Jaune, we all know that you're a lower level than we are. It's okay to say that you need help. If you don't want to fight, then stay back where its safe and leech exp. We'll be able to defeat them while you leve-"

"I don't want to be the one left out and useless." Jaune shook his head, "Pyrrha, I can do this. Please, believe me."

Pyrrha looked him in the eyes and nodded, "Alright, Jaune. We'll go together."

"Thank you, Pyrrha." Jaune sighed in relief, "So, where's the next one? Further down the river?"

"No, this one's the only one by the shore." Pyrrha responded, looking over the quest log, "The rest are scattered in the middle of the river, so we'll have to borrow a boat to get at them."

"A-A B-Boat?" Jaune stuttered.

"What's up?" Nora asked, poking her head out from behind Pyrrha, "You're looking a little green."

"I-I am not!" He protested, stomping back towards the quest giver, "Let's just get this job over with."

Ruby looked from Nora who was giggling to Ren who just sighed and rubbed his forehead before they followed just behind Pyrrha and Jaune. Tilting her head to try and figure out what was so funny, she followed closely behind them.

The conversation with the quest NPC only lasted a few minutes, but the walk to the boat just a short walk away took much longer.

"Why are you dragging your feet, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked him, turning to face him after five minutes of him slowing them down.

"I-I'm not!" He repeated, "It's just... are we sure there's no other way..?"

"Jaune, we'll be fine." Pyrrha assured him before literally dragging him to the dingy little rowboat on the dock.

"Alright, Pyrrha, you've got the locations of the monsters, right?" Ren said, taking the oars, "Lead the way. Jaune, you take the othe-" He stopped as soon as he saw Jaune, clutching the side of the boat looking dizzy and sick, "Jaune?"

"Sorry..." He groaned, taking the oar, "I'm good. Really."

"You don't look so good..." Pyrrha said nervously, but she didn't have time to continue. All of them jerked their heads around as the system message revealed that a monster was targeting them.

"Here we go." Ruby said, taking a deep breath to prepare for the coming fight.

* * *

"Finally, back on dry land!" Jaune sighed in relief once they'd made it past the shark infested swamp late that evening.

"Jaune, you should've told us you were motion sick." Pyrrha said, stepping off the boat.

"I didn't know I would be." He countered, "I mean, this is just a game, right? So shouldn't motion sickness not exist?"

"Apparently not." Ren replied, collapsing on the shore, "While we're on the subject, is there any chance we could not do that again?"

"Why?" Nora asked, dragging along a net filled with shark meat that had dropped, "I thought it was fun."

"I think I'm with Ren..." Ruby said nervously while she caught her breath.

"Regardless, I don't think we have to worry too much about it." Pyrrha said, "From here on, it's a straight path to the final town. By now, the clearers should've dealt with any floor bosses that would've been blocking the path, so it's just the normal mobs."

"Good." Ruby said, stowing her scythe back in her inventory since they were in a safe zone. "Anyway, that quest sure helped me get a few levels."

"Congrats, Ruby." Nora said eagerly, "So, what stats did you raise? Agility? Dex? Maybe Strength?"

"Yeah, Strength." Ruby replied, "My scythe's still a bit too heavy though. I can't move as quickly as I used to be able to."

"You can't?" Jaune turned to her, "But... you were so fast out there..."

"Yeah. I kinda put everything into agility before now, so I'm pretty confident in my speed." She replied before sheepishly adding, "At least, usually..."

"I'm curious, Ruby. Why would you use a scythe if you knew it would lower your speed?" Pyrrha asked as they made their way to the town center.

"Well, I kinda suck with a sword..." Ruby chuckled nervously, as she remembered Weiss' stinging comments, "But I thought, you know, since I got a new skill, maybe I'd see if it's any better."

"Is it?" Nora said, hopping around like a kid hopped up on candy.

"I dunno. I'm doing alright, I guess, but it's still hard." Ruby sighed, "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this after all..."

"I don't believe that." Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren all said at the same time.

"Your level might be a bit lower than the normal, but I don't think that there's a question that you're cut out for this." Pyrrha continued, turning to face her in the middle of the street, "Ruby, just in the short time I've known you, I've seen that you're a strong willed, motivated, and relatively skilled for a beginner."

"How do you know I'm a beginner?" Ruby muttered to herself.

"Because if you were a beta player, you wouldn't need me to tell you this." She responded, "The point is that you need to have more faith in yourself. You and Jaune both have that problem."

"Hey!" Jaune protested, but almost everyone ignored his outburst.

"She's right, Ruby." Ren added, "And as for your speed, Nora had the same problem back when she first got her hammer. It took her a little while, but once her strength was raised enough, she was able to move without any trouble."

"Yup!" Nora said happily, waving her hammer around while jumping around, unhindered by the weight of the massive two-handed hammer, "But it was soooooo boring! It took me and Ren soooo long to get enough strength to really use it."

"You'll get there, I promise." Pyrrha smiled, leading them into the Inn, "Now, let's get some rest. Today was tough, so make sure that you're well-rested."

"What time are we waking up in the morning?" Ren asked, opening the window to rent a room.

"Ten." Pyrrha answered.

"Boo!" Nora groaned, "Noon!"

"Ren's making Pancakes." Pyrrha said simply, and Nora's eyes started to sparkle.

"Why wait until ten? Let's get up at five!"

"Ten." Pyrrha repeated, waving back to them before heading up the stairs to her room.

* * *

Ozpin watched silently from the inn's couch as the five split up to head up to their respective rooms.

"Well?" The blond haired woman across from him asked him while she sipped her tea, "What do you think?"

"It's not just the girl." He responded, "Those other four also show great potential."

"Three I can see, but that boy seems too mediocre." She answered with a frown, "I really don't think that he'll survive much longer if he keeps trying to clear. He could barely row the boat while they fought."

"Perhaps, but on the other hand, if he manages to survive, he'll have defied the odds, wouldn't he?" he smiled, "Regardless, it's a matter for some time down the road. In the meantime, Glynda, what did you find about the other five?"

"Yes, well, Miss Yang and Miss Blake have already made a name for themselves as solo party. They've rejected multiple offers from several guilds that have already started to make a name for themselves. The 'Army' as it's being called, seems extremely persistent to recruit them."

"As well they should." Ozpin nodded to himself, "Those two will be instrumental to bring this game to a close. And I imagine that they're not pleased?"

"Last report was that they've declared they'd only join a guild capable of defeating them in a duel. No one's succeeded."

"That sure does make recruiting them more interesting." He laughed quietly, "And?"

"Weiss is currently running with the Army, though she's shown discontent with their leadership style, so it's unlikely to last for too much longer." Glynda continued, "She's famous among the clearers as one of the most skilled Rapier wielders on the front lines."

"Am I correct in assuming that the other would be...?"

"Correct, the girl called Asuna you've spoken with previously." She nodded, "And finally, Leafa and Kirito, the 'Beaters'. Skill wise, I don't believe it would an exaggeration to call them the strongest players in the game, but I'm not sure if recruiting them would be the wisest move at the present time."

"Why is that?" He asked, already aware of her reason.

"While they would be an invaluable asset to the guild, we have to keep the guild's public appearance in mind. After the fiasco on floor two, the beaters are despised by almost every player in Sword Art Online. If we were to recruit them, or even try to recruit them, it could adversely affect our future operations." She said calmly, "I would recommend waiting for a short time, until the guild has been properly established. Afterwards, we'll be in a better position to make such a controversial move."

"Thank you for your input, Glynda." He nodded, "I will take everything into account when making plans."

"Very well." she bowed, "Then I will take my leave and continue looking for prospective recruits."

"Please do." He said, ordering a refill on his drink, "In the meantime, I think it's time to start the next phase of our plans."

"Understood."

* * *

After a filling breakfast of freshly made strawberry pancakes (No syrup, though. They blamed Nora for that.), the five of them split to make sure that their equipment was in order before meeting up at the back gate. Ruby once again brought out her scythe, but the weight was still too much for her to swing it at her usual speed.

"Alright, guys." Jaune said, calling all of their attention, "let's get started. Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha, you guys are our main fighters." Ruby's expression fell after being left out, but Jaune placed a hand on her shoulder, "Ruby, you'll be the finisher. It's better for you to get the bulk of the exp so that you can fight more effectively in the future. How close are you to the strength requirement?"

"Three levels." She answered.

'"Alright. Pyrrha, think we can get three levels today?" Jaune asked her.

"Probably, but we'll have to go out of our way to target monsters rather than focusing on progressing to the next town." Pyrrha responded, "If we head to a side dungeon on the way, we'll be pretty much guaranteed to make it through, but if we aren't careful, we might end up missing the boss raid."

"I don't think we'll have too much trouble with that." Ren piped in, "I heard that the clearers are having trouble with the main dungeon, so it'll be a few days at least before the next boss raid. That should be more than enough for us to do some side leveling in the dungeon."

"Where'd you hear that?" Jaune asked.

"It was from that-" Ren started, turning around before looking around with a look of confusion, "Strange. He was just over there a minute ago..."

"What do you think, Jaune?" Pyrrha asked after a few seconds.

"Ruby, do you want to take the chance?" Jaune said, turning to her, "It's no big deal if we miss the raid, since we'll just keep going for the next one, but if you don't meet with your friends, couldn't that cause a problem for you?"

"I-I don't think that's a problem. Don't go out of your way on my account..." Ruby said sheepishly, "I'll just follow your lead, since you are the leader, right?"

"L-Leader?" Jaune stuttered.

"Of course, Jaune." Pyrrha sighed.

"You ARE the party leader, aren't you?" Ren smiled.

"Yup yup." Nora agreed, "If it wasn't you, who would it be?"

"R-Right. I knew that." Jaune said nervously, "So, let's just get moving and we'll see how we do before we decide whether we should go on a side trip."

"Got it." The group said as one before following Jaune out of the town gates.

* * *

At the entrance to the dungeon, Yang and Blake watched as the two beaters argued back and forth over a meaningless question.

"This is your fault, Yang." Blake sighed, "Why'd you have to ask who could kill more monsters?"

"I was just curious!" She said defensively, "How was I supposed to know it'd turn out like this?"

"That's it!" Both of them shouted at the same time, turning away from each other.

"We'll settle this the same as always." Kirito sighed, bringing up his menu, "I'm at five sixty-four. You?"

"Four ninety one." She replied, bringing up her own menu to check the accumulated exp.

"Whoever's gained more exp by the end of the day wins." Kirito said, dissolving the party.

"Loser buys dinner." Leafa nodded, walking away and into the dungeon.

"I can't help but feel this is slightly my fault..." Yang said nervously, "Sorry, Kirito."

"It's fine." He shrugged, "This would've happened eventually. We tend to spend more time solo than in a party nowadays."

"Still, I feel bad about it." Yang said, waving to him before heading in after Leafa, "So I'll keep an eye on her, alright?"

"Thanks, Yang." Kirito said to her, looking over to Blake, "So that leaves the two of us?"

"I suppose." Blake replied, "You going to send the invite? I'm not like you or Yang. I'm not confident enough in my skills to go in there solo."

"Personally, I think you'd be fine." Kirito told her, sending the invite, "You don't strike me as the type to lose easily, and since you've been partnered with Yang, your level should be more than enough to solo these monsters."

"Maybe so, but I'm not willing to take the chance." Blake replied, walking into the dungeon with him behind her.

* * *

Ren jumped back out of the way of the flying bat, and Ruby dashed forward. Two back-to-back days of training had given her the points she needed, and she swung the scythe even faster than she had her short sword. The bat tried to dodge, but it couldn't avoid the three-hit combo of 'Skull Rose' and it shattered into fragments of data.

"Good work, Ruby." Jaune said from behind them, where he and Pyrrha (mostly Pyrrha) had been dealing with another one, "Seems like it was a good idea to check this place out, huh?"

"I'll say." Ruby giggled, "I just grew another level!"

"Yeah, me too." Jaune nodded.

"The monsters are stronger than those outside, so it's only natural that we'd earn more experience from defeating them." Ren said simply, "More importantly, our stock of potions is dwindling. I recommend we leave and make our way to the floor dungeon."

"But that's boooooring!" Nora protested, "Just a bit further!"

"I agree with Ren." Pyrrha added, "If these are the only monsters here, we should be alright. But if we go any further, we run the risk of encountering stronger monsters that we aren't equipped to deal with. Retreating is the wisest choice of action."

"Come'on, guys!" Jaune laughed, walking onwards, "We can handle it."

"Jaune, I really think-" Pyrrha started, but Jaune had already opened the large door in front of them.

"Fine." He sighed, "We'll clear out this room and lea-" He stopped dead as something darted past them. Before he could even react, something grabbed him from behind. He started struggling against it, but his hp continued to drop as whatever was hiding in the shadows continued to attack.

Pyrrha was the first to respond, leaping forward and tossing her short spear past Jaune's head. There was a flash of red, and Jaune was sent flying, his hp only slightly above the red.

"W-W-What's going on?" Jaune stuttered as he backed away from the door, "Pyrrha?"

"Drink a potion, quickly!" She shouted, drawing her short sword and raising her shield, "Whatever it is, it's not dead. We need to-"

"Yahoo!" Nora laughed, jumping into the air and swing her hammer randomly. Contrary to their expectations, her second attack connected and launched whatever it was towards them. As it collided with the wall behind them, they were able to get their first clear look at it by torchlight. A long grey cloak over unnaturally pale skin, pointed fangs visible just behind its lips, and unnatural red eyes looking at them all.

"Vampire of the Lost Island..." Pyrrha read in horror.

"We have to leave." Ren said immediately, grabbing Nora by the arm, "Now."

"Why?" Nora asked him with her hammer held in front of her, "Can't we just smash it?"

"Any monster with the word 'the' in its name is a boss." Pyrrha reminded her, "We can't beat it alone. We have to escape."

"You guys get moving." Ruby said, holding her scythe in front of her, "I'll stop it."

"Ruby, you can't be seriou-" Jaune shouted, but Ruby just shook her head.

"You saw how fast it was." She reminded them, "If we try and outrun it, we'll just be killed. But if one of us keeps its attentio-"

"Absolutely not!" Pyrrha shouted, grabbing Ruby's arm, "Ruby, if we can't beat it as a group, what makes you think that you can alone?!"

"I don't have to." Ruby answered, dashing forward and hitting it with the shaft of her scythe, "I'm faster than any of you. I can avoid its attacks, and once you've escaped, I'll be able to get away mys-"

"Ruby, that's crazy!" Ren protested, "That plan might seem like it would work, but we're up against a boss! We can't expect it to be like any other monster!"

"Just go!" Ruby shouted, swing her scythe at the vampire with 'Reap', but it ducked underneath and tried to counter attack. Thankfully, the lag from her skill ended just in time for her to jump back and dodge.

Pyrrha looked worriedly from her to Jaune and back, "Nora, Ren, get Jaune-"

"No way!" Jaune yelled, "Pyrrha, we're not leaving y-"

"Understood." Ren said, gripping Jaune's arm and dragging him back towards the exit, "Now is not the time for you to act like a fool, Jaune."

"But-!" Jaune started, but Nora clamped a and over his mouth and pushed him back.

"Why aren't you leaving?" Ruby asked, sidestepping the vampire's lung and trying to counterattack.

"Because the two of us will fare better than you alone." She answered, slamming the hilt of her sword into the vampire's skull, dazing it and finally dealing a small amount of damage, "Switch!"

Ruby dashed right past her, and the shaft of the scythe glowed black, Scythe skill 'Soul Impact'. The Vampire, dazed by Pyrrha's attack, wasn't able dodge, and it was sent flying into the doors. As soon as it came into contact with them, it let out a loud cry as its hp plummeted.

"Let's go!" Pyrrha shouted, running back towards the entrance of the dungeon with Ruby on her heels.

Just after Pyrrha turned the corner up ahead, something wrenched Ruby backwards. As she tried to let out a screamed, something punctured her neck, and she lost her voice. The status icon beside her gradually decreasing hp gauge showed a paralysis icon, and she tried again to cry out, but no sound left her mouth.

Her body went limp as she could do nothing but watch her hp dip into the red, and for a second, she thought it was over.

The next instant, there was a strong gust of wind and she was sent flying forward. The paralysis wore off immediately, and she scrambled for an hp potion as she turned around. The vampire was impaled on a long silver blade held by a girl wearing a red dress and a mask that bore a striking resemblance to the snake creature she'd killed on her quest.

"W-Who..?" Ruby asked weakly after swallowing down the potion.

"It doesn't really matter who I am." she answered, twisting the blade and causing the vampire on it to convulse, but its hp hadn't changed at all. "excuse me for a moment." She said, walking back towards the vampire's room and throwing it, sword and all, back inside before shutting the door.

"T-T-Thank you." Ruby sighed, "You saved me."

"You are her little sister after all." the girl responded, reaching into her bag and removing a large blue object. It was shaped like a tower of pale blue glass, the base being made entirely of silver, "I would recommend you leave now. Your party made the mistake of opening that door. There's no telling what could happen now."

"W-What...?" Ruby asked, but she didn't respond.

"Corridor, open." She said calmly, and the tower of glass started to shine. A purple ripple appeared in the air in front of them, and she walked in. Before Ruby could open her mouth to say something, the girl was gone.

"Ruby!" A voice shouted from behind her, and she turned to see Pyrrha running towards her, along with the rest of the party.

"Hey, guys." Ruby waved, "Looks like we made it through alright, huh?"

"Are you alright!?" Pyrrha panted, her shield held up as if to defend from any attacks that might come out of the shadows, "What happened?"

"It grabbed me, and I think it was trying to suck my blood?" Ruby answered, "Then this girl saved me, and she put the vampire back in his room, said I should leave, than vanished into thin air."

"Is that so...? Pyrrha said thoughtfully, slowly approaching the purple ripples in air, "Well, we might as well take her gift since she went out of her way to leave it for us."

"what?" Everyone asked at the same time.

"Just follow me." Pyrrha said, stepping into the ripple, followed soon after by the rest of them.

One moment, Ruby was walking through an underground dungeon, and the next she was standing in the middle of a large crowd in a crowded street.

"Where'd you guys come from?!" One of the boy at the front shouted, "Some cheat?"

"It's called a corridor crystal." Pyrrha replied, then stopped two of the players who were about to touch the ripples, "Don't. If you touch it, you'll be teleported to the very end of the extra dungeon, right next to the boss room. And I don't know how much longer the corridor will be open for. Enter at your own risk."

The players gulp nervously and back away just as the corridor fades away.

"Well, we made it." Pyrrha said once they managed to force their way through the crowd.

"What do you mean?" Jaune said, looking around the busy streets.

"This is Goldoa." She replied, "The final village before the dungeon."

"So this is it..." Ruby said to herself as she looked around.

"Think your friends are still around?" Ren asked her as they followed Jaune and Pyrrha to a nearby inn.

"Probably..." Ruby answered, opening her menu and checking her friends list, "Looks like they're not here at the moment. They're probably in the dungeon searching for the boss room."

"What now?" Nora asked her.

"I think I'll stay with you guys until I meet up with them." Ruby shrugged, "If you'll have me."

"Sounds like fun." Jaune responded, "Then let's get something to eat to celebrate us making it in time for the boss raid!"

* * *

"Hey, Kirito..." Blake said slowly as they both stared at the door, "Is this...?"

"Yeah, it is." Kirito nodded, "Looks like we found it. The boss room of floor four."

"We'd better head back then." Blake said, turning away from the door.

"Yeah, you're right." Kirito said, sending a message to Leafa and Yang, "We'd better get ready for a raid."

* * *

"Ruby, you heard?" Jaune asked the next morning after she ran into the dining area of the inn.

"Yeah, a friend of mine messaged me." Ruby replied, putting up the hood of her new red hood.

"Alright then." Pyrrha said once Ren and Nora had joined them, "So the raid meeting starts soon. Everyone ready?"

"Of course." Nora giggled, while Ren just silently nodded.

"Then let's go." Jaune agreed, gesturing for them to follow him to the massive cathedral in the center of town.

By the time they arrived, a number of players sat in the pews facing the alter in front of them.

At the head of group were four players, all of whom were instantly recognized.

"Alright, thank you all for coming!" Kirito said loudly, "As you all know, we've found the boss room in the dungeon. We need to form a raid crew made up of the strongest players we can. Does everyone have the newest guide?"

"Yeah, we've got them." One of the men at the very front responded, holding his guide up, "But will they really do any good? Every boss so far has been completely different from the beta. What's the point in reading up on information that won't help us in the slightest?"

"You're right, but it will at least give us something to work off of." Leafa replied, "We can't go in thinking that we know exactly what it's going to be waiting for us, but at the very least it's better than nothing."

"Besides, the changes haven't been all that drastic." Yang shrugged, "Sure, there's a few additional skills here and there, maybe minions too, but the basic plan doesn't really need to be changed all that much."

The group of players murmur in agreement, and Kirito clears his throat to call the meeting back to order.

"So the boss this time 'The Creature from the Lake'. Its attacks are mostly weaker, wide area skills, but don't let that fool you. It's still much stronger than any of us, so the tanks are going to need to keep its attention. The rest will have to attack from behind. It's big, so it shouldn't be able to turn very quickly. If we aim for its back, then we'll have time to avoid the majority of attacks."

"What about minions?" Another player in the back asked.

"There was nothing in the beta, but as we've already established, that doesn't mean much." Yang answered, "We'll have to assign one or two parties to break away from the attack force to deal with them. We have to be especially careful of NPCs like those summoned for the second floor battle. We have to prevent the boss from healing, otherwise this whole battle could end badly."

Many of the players, whom Ruby recognized as those who fought the floor two boss, nodded in response. Most of Ruby's party looked around in confusion, so she made a mental note to let them know once the meeting was over.

Rather than waiting for the inevitable talking to subside, Kirito loudly continued, "Now, everyone, form your parties and come up here so we can make the necessary plans. Because there are so many of you, and we're limited to forty-eight players, we'll be in touch with the teams chosen for the raid some time tonight. Meeting adjourned!"

"Ruby..." Pyrrha sighed later that night, "Wasn't that your point? To join up with your friends?"

"Yeah..." Ruby mumbled, "But they've already got a full party..."

"I'm sure they could make room for you if you asked." Ren replied, "There's really no reason for you to stay with us. Just go see them, alright?"

"I'll go after the boss fight." She shook her head, "Besides, I want to see for myself if I'll be able to stay on the front line..."

"So stubborn..." Nora said with a mouthful of pancakes.

"Coming from you, that's saying something." Jaune said with a small smile, "But if you're so sure, I guess you can stay." At that moment, a ping sounded and Jaune opened his window. With a few taps, a window, likely showing a message, opened in front of him and he breathed a sigh of relief, "Looks like we're in, guys. Better get some sleep. Otherwise, we'll miss the raid."

* * *

"Alright, we've sent the PMs." Kirito said to the rest of his party.

"I'm still not so sure about this 'Jaune's party." Asuna frowned, looking to Blake, "did they really seem like they'd be that good?"

"I agree that the leader's not much to look at, but the others were more than enough to make up for that." Blake replied, not mentioning to the others that one of their former comrades was in the party, "Given that, I think it's worth the risk. At worst, they're levels should be enough to deal with the boss's minions."

"I've gotta agreed with Asuna on this one." Agil added, turning to Kirito, "Look, man, are you really sure about this?"

"I'm with Blake." Yang told them, "I didn't see them, so I can't say for sure, but Blake's a good judge of strength. If she says they're good enough, I'm inclined to agree with her."

"We feel the same way." Kirito replied, and Leafa nodded, "The messages are already out, so all that's left is to deal with the consequences when they arise."

"Fair enough, I guess." Asuna sighed, getting out of her chair, "I'm heading to bed. Night."

"Night." The rest say as they split for the night.

* * *

The raid group left town early the next morning, following Kirito's party through the floor dungeon. Even though they'd left at the crack of dawn, the group moved slowly, and by the time they stopped in front of the boss door, Ruby could roughly estimate it was dusk.

"Alright, we're taking a few minutes." Kirito said loudly, "Everyone, make sure your health is restored, check your equipment and rest for a little bit. We'll move in as soon as everyone's done.'

The large clearing was soon filled with players sitting and relaxing as they waited for the health potions to take effect. Meanwhile, Kirito's team which had been running point for the entire trip spread out among them to check in. Blake turned away from the rest and walked over to Jaune's party.

"Everyone doing alright?" She asked, looking around, "You guys know your job, right?"

"Yeah, we know." Jaune replied, "We'll be backing up the assault team, and dealing with any minions that might spawn, right?"

"That's right." She nodded, glancing over at Ruby, who's face was still concealed by her hood. "How've you been, Ruby?"

"W-W-What?! Ruby stuttered, "How'd you-"

"Not everyone's as oblivious as Yang and Kirito." She said easily, "Both of them still think that you're on floor one. Just be glad that Yang hasn't opened her friends list lately. I don't envy you when she realizes you're here..."

"Are you going to tell her?" Ruby asked.

"If I were going to tell her, she'd already know." Blake shrugged, "Just don't get yourself killed. Otherwise, I'm the one Yang's going to shout at."

"Yes ma'am..." Ruby mumbled, but was saved from any further lecturing when Kirito let out a loud whistle.

"Everyone, weapons out and let's go!" He shouted, drawing the longsword from his back. Leafa likewise pulled out her own sword, a new katana, and Yang's gauntlets were already equipped. Blake gave her a small wave before following suit and joining the rest of her party in front of the boss door.

"Let's go!" Leafa shouted, pushing the door open and charging in, the rest of her party and the raid group behind her.

The moment the door was opened, a surge of water pushed them backwards momentarily, but it wasn't long before they were standing in only a few inches of water in the room. A loud growl echoed inside the chamber as the boss charged them. The group scattered as it swung its long neck around, sending two of the tanks crashing into the wall. Though they lost some hp, the threat wasn't significant. The tanks were up and charging back to the front lines. Roughly half of the parties were already chipping away at one of the bosses' four hp bars.

"Circle around the back!" Kirito shouted, charging around to attack it from behind. Yang, meanwhile, took charge of the tanks.

Ruby ran around the other side, dodging the boss's tail swipes and slicing at it while she passed.

"Holy crap." One of the people behind her said nervously, "Is that a scythe?"

"Looks like you're a celebrity!" Nora giggled, smashing the boss' fin with a massive two handed hammer strike.

"Now's not the time for jokes, Nora!" Ren shouted, parrying a few of the strikes and jabbing into its chest with his katar.

"Oh, poo." Nora pouted, jumping into the air and attacking its spine.

The boss collapsed under the devastating blow, and under its name, it showed the paralysis icon.

"Everyone, pile on it!" Leafa called out, the blade of her katana glowing gold, followed soon after by every other member of the group. The paralysis only lasted for maybe a minute, but in that time, countless skills were unleashed to the boss's head, and with each hit its hp decreased by a sliver. When it finally raised its head off of the ground, the first of its hp bars was down to about half.

"Keep at it, guys!" Kirito said, slicing at the boss's neck with a series of strikes, "We can win this! Tanks, rotate out and heal."

"Do that again, Nora!" Jaune said, slicing at the boss's fin and getting sent flying for his trouble.

"Sure thing!" Nora said happily, jumped back into the air. This time, though, the boss was ready. Its head whipped around and smashed her into the ground before she could hit the weak spot.

"Yang!" Kirito shouted, and the blonde bombshell needed no further orders. With a mighty jump, she propelled herself onto its back and hit the same spot as Nora. Just like before, it crashed into the ground and everyone swarmed it. The combination of the quick but heavy strikes of Yang and the slow but devastating attacks from Nora to its weak point kept it off guard, and they were able to repeatedly paralyze it.

The string of attacks started to take their toll on the boss, but it still rose up with about a quarter of its final bar left. This time, its entire body started glow blue.

"It's a skill!" Pyrrha called out, "Everyone, get out of the way!"

Most of the group didn't have a chance to escape, however. The boss let out a loud roar, and a tidal wave knocked most of the tanks and about half the attack force to the wall. All of them took heavy damage, and were stunned for an unknown amount of time. Even though they weren't in any condition to attack it, the boss kept attacking the tanks and bringing their hp down to dangerous levels.

"Get it!" Kirito shouted, attacking with all his might, "Don't let any of them die!"

Even with the remaining members attacking all at once, it didn't slow its assault. It's area attacks, while weaker than other boss's attacks, still chipped away at the stunned players hp until they were barely alive.

Several of the players were able to break free and escape, but the majority of them were still unable to move. Among them were Ren, Agil, Leafa, and-

"Yang!" Ruby shouted as her sister struggled to move despite being frozen in place. The boss's hp, now down to a quarter, was still too much. They couldn't beat it before it killed the others...

An idea popped into her mind, an idea so crazy that it would either save Yang's life, or cost Ruby her own. Maybe both. But at this point, it's their only chance.

"Nora!" she said to the hammer wielder who, for once in her life looked deadly serious, "I need you to launch me at it!"

"What?" Nora said, stopping her attack in surprise, "That's crazy. Are you sure?"

Nodding her head, Ruby prepped her scythe for the attack, "I'm sure."

"Then jump." Nora responded, holding her hammer at her side with the head glowing white. Ruby jumped as ordered, and Nora's hammer collided with her legs. Immediately, her hp plummeted to barely more than nothing, and given the status icon under the hp gauge, one of her legs had been blown clean off. The blade of her scythe glowed crimson for her strongest sword skill. 'Execution'.

The boss's tail swept up, aiming to knock her out of the sky. With her skill started, she couldn't make any major dodging, but she was barely able to turn her body. The boss's tail tore through her cloak, and it shattered into polygons instantly. But she passed beyond its guard and her attack landed cleanly on its neck.

The blade of her scythe tore through it, dropping its hp to zero. While the boss exploded, she realized the other problem with her plan. If she fell from this height, the last of her hp would be-

"Uh oh." She gulped as she kept flying through the air. A split second before she crashed into the wall, a black shadow appeared in front of her and she felt something grab hold of her.

"Are you absolutely insane!?" Blake shouted, lowering her safely to the ground, "There are limits, you know! You're lucky that you're still alive at all!"

"Um…" Ruby mumbled, "Well, it's just-"

"Ruby." Another, much darker voice said from behind them, and she froze up. Slowly turning around, she saw her sister walking towards, now free of the stun, with her gauntlets still active. Kirito and Leafa followed just behind her, with Kirito smiling and Leafa staring at her in disbelief.

"Hey, Yang…" She nervously said as she looked for some exit, "Fancy meeting you here…"

"Heal." Kirito said, taking a crystal from his pocket. The crystal shattered, but Ruby's hp returned to maximum and her leg was restored as well.

"Thank you, Kirito." Yang said, deactivating one of her gauntlets and grabbing Ruby by the front of the dress and dragging her to her feet, "WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU!? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW RECKLESS THAT WAS? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT COULD'VE HAPPENED TO YOU!? WHAT THE HELL MAKES YOU THINK THAT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO CATAPULT YOURSELF OFF A HAMMER!?"

While she paused to take a breath, Ruby quickly tried to explain herself before Yang really got going, "I know, but if I didn't, you could've died!"

"That's no excuse!" Yang replied angrily, "Do you really think I care about that!? If you ever do something like that again, I'll personally catapult you off the next floor."

"Okay…" Ruby mumbled in embarrassment.

"Good." Yang nodded, finally deactivating her second gauntlet and throwing her arms around Ruby, "You have no idea how worried I was. Why didn't you tell me you were here?"

"Well, I was going to yesterday, but you already had a full party, so I thought I'd just wait until after the boss raid… "Ruby muttered.

"First of all, that was stupid and reckless." Yang started, "Secondly, that's the worst excuse I've ever heard. Even worse than the time you blamed Zwei for eating your homework when he was expressly told not to. And thirdly, why was I not the first message you made after you left floor one!?"

"I... well... I just kinda wanted to..." Ruby mumbled, looking at the ground instead of her sister, "see if I was really good enough to be on the front lines..."

"Little sister." Yang said dangerously, her gauntlets once more activated and clanking behind her back, "That was literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"I know…" Ruby muttered, looking nervously around at the fact that everyone in the boss raid was currently watching their little argument with interest, "But-"

"Ruby." Yang cut her off, "You are going to come back to our party this instant. You are going to stop doing such reckless things, and the next time we see Weiss, I'm going to personally teach that little know it all how you're supposed to play this game. You have no say in the matter. That is all."

"But-" Ruby started, and Yang hugged her even more tightly.

"No say." Yang repeated, "Now, do you understand?"

"Yes…" Ruby blushed, "Thanks Yang."

"Good." Yang said, releasing her, "Sorry Kirito."

"we're good." Kirito said, dissolving the party with a tap of the menu, "Ruby, just gotta say, that last move was pretty badass."

"Don't even think about it." Leafa said warningly, "My lecture will be much more severe. And will probably involve some form of torture."

"Yes ma'am…" Kirito sighed.

"Yay!" Nora said happily, "Everyone's happy!"

"Nora, you do realize that your cursor is orange, don't you?" Ren asked, pointing above her head.

"Oh, yeah." She said, looking up, "Funny. Anyway, shall we keep going?"

"Don't worry about it." Leafa giggled while Ren face-palmed, "It'll go back to green in about a day. Until then, you'll have to stay out of the towns, though. Otherwise the guards will try and kill you."

"Let them try." Nora grinned evilly, spinning her hammer.

"Nora!" Ren shouted.

"Yes Ren?" She asked sweetly.

"What do you say we go training for about a day?" Ren suggested.

"Great idea!" She nodded happily, "Let's train on the guards!"

"Nora!" The entire party groaned, and she finally relented.

"Fine, we'll do it your way." Nora sighed, "But only if you make pancakes!"

"Thank god." Ren muttered under his breath.

"Let's go, everybody." Kirito smiled once the raid party had calmed down completely after the excitement of the battle and the post battle entertainment, "Time to get to floor five."

* * *

Part of me thinks I made Ruby a bit too reckless this chapter, but the other part has that Ruby DID try to fight the deathstalker alone, and the white fang, and... Well, she's plenty reckless in the canon.

Next chapter starts with a timeskip, and I think it's quite fitting this close to Christmas time...

Oh, and the next chapter will probably be out Christmas Day. So until then, review and tell me what you think!


	8. Red Nosed Reindeer

RWBY 8

Merry Christmas! Here's your present, another longer chapter . Might see a few changes too, particularly towards the end...

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or SAO.

* * *

Aincrad Floor 19 Dungeon

"Remind me again why we're on this floor?" Leafa sighed as she once again destroys one of the small scorpions that made up the bulk of the monsters in this part of the dungeon, "It doesn't matter how long we train here, we're never going to gain even one level."

"Maybe, but Argo wants a certain drop." Kirito replied, taking out three scorpions with one sword skill, "These things are supposed to drop an intact tail that can be used to make a high priced whip that apparently Argo needs to get some info on the upcoming Christmas event."

"I get that." Leafa said once the mobs had been repelled for the moment, "But why are WE here? Argo should be more than capable of doing this herself."

"Because Argo knows a way to upgrade our gear without having a risk of losing it." He replied with a shrug, "So I think that it'll be worth it in the end."

"Fine, whatever." She said, ripping through the masses of scorpions that had respawned and surrounded them while they were talking.

"Sugu, make sure you don't let them sting you." he reminded her pointlessly.

"The poison couldn't even get us into the yellow." She said easily, "We're almost twenty levels higher than we should be in this area. You know full well that we can't be killed around here."

"And that's no excuse to not be careful." Kirito reminded her, "The game changes every day. Just last week that dungeon on floor seven opened up, remember? Eight clearers nearly died exploring it. For all we know, this dungeon might also have some expansion we don't know about."

"Fine." She sighed with a slight blush, "When did you become the smart one?"

"Well, I am your older brother." He said proudly.

"And there are a few occasions where you actually show it." She smirked, stabbing the last of the scorpions with her katana. With the mass battle over, both she and Kirito looked through the battle results to see their drops.

"Nothing over here.' Kirito sighed, closing his menu, "You?"

"Two of them." She smirked, "Looks like I'm the winner this time."

"One for Argo, and one to sell then?" He said, sheathing his sword.

"I suppose. Think Agil'd give us a good price for it?" She asked as they started to walk back towards the entrance.

"Nope." Kirito said immediately, and both of them shared a laugh.

With the exit in sight, they both were making final checks to their inventory and equipment in preparation for returning to the front line. However, they both heard it at the same time. A loud scream.

"Let's go." Kirito said immediately, charging down the nearby corridor with her right behind him, both their swords drawn and ready for a fight. The scream only lasted for a moment, but luckily the sounds of a struggle continued past that. As they rounded the final corner, they were able to see a group of players fighting against two cave dragons, the strongest creatures in the dungeon.

"I'll take care of it." Kirito said to his sister, charging forward and cutting off the creature's advance.

"Are you guys alright?" Leafa asked the group, who were staring at Kirito in awe.

"Yeah, fine…" One of them said quickly.

"I thought we were going to die…" The only girl in the group said as she collapsed, dropping her spear on the ground.

"It'll be alright." Leafa assured her, "We'll take care of the rest."

"You sure?" The first guy asked, then turned back to Kirito. The two dragons tried their best to corner him, but it didn't take more than a minute for the first one to disappear. The second didn't even last half that long.

"Everyone alright?" He asked them.

"Yeah, thanks." The leader of the party sighed, sheathing his sword, "You saved us. I thought we were done for."

"It's not a problem, really." Leafa assured them, "I'm just glad that we happened to be walking by."

"Still, we owe you one." He insisted, "I know! Why don't you guys come back to our headquarters on floor eleven? We'll buy you a drink."

"You really don't have to-" Kirito tried to say, but all of them were very insistent. Finally, he and Leafa relented, walking the group to the teleport gate in the nearby town of Crimea.

"Teleport, Taft!" They all said at the same time.

The teleport gate let them out at the Taft town square on Floor eleven, and the group headed into a nearby inn where the leader, Keita, ordered a round of drinks for them all.

"Here's to our new friends, Kirito and Leafa!" He said, raising his glass.

"Cheers!" Everyone else toasted while Kirito and Leafa just looked at each other, feeling embarrassed.

"We seriously owe you guys big." The mace wielder, Tetsuo, said, taking a long drink from his mug, "That second one came out of nowhere. There's no way we could've taken them out on our own."

'We really didn't do that much." Leafa said sheepishly.

"If you don't mind my asking, what level are you guys?" Sasamaru asked, "I mean, you guys didn't hesitate even though it was just the two of you."

"Yeah, well…" Kirito chuckled, looking at the corner of the screen to his own level, thirty-nine. Across from him, he saw Leafa doing the same the thing, then gave him a meaningful look. The entire guild was looking at him expectantly, so he knew he had to give an answer quickly.

"Well, I'm level twenty-one." He lied.

"And I'm twenty." Leafa said, following up his lie even though she was the same level as him, just a few hundred exp.

"Really?" Ducker, the guild's resident 'thief' said with a loud laugh, "You're incredible! You're at our level, and you're fighting without any backup besides each other!"

"It's not that impressive." Leafa tried to argue.

"Still, for two players to be fighting so close to the front lines without a guild is pretty much unheard of." Keita added, "Look, I hate to ask this out of the blue, but I was wondering if you two would be willing to join our guild?"

"What?" Kirito asked in surprise, "You want us?"

"See, Tetsuo's the only tank we have, which makes it pretty difficult for us to switch out and avoid enemy attacks. Today proved that better than anything." He nodded, "See, we originally wanted to put Sachi out front with a sword and shield, but she's been against it."

"Of course I'm against it!" Sachi huffed from the other side of the table, "You can't just throw me out front and expect me to know what to do. I'd be terrified!"

"It's not too difficult." Tetsuo told her, "Just hide behind your shield! You'll take like no damage!"

"What if I'm too slow?" Sachi asked meekly, "I could…"

"That's what we're here for." Keita said, and the others offered words of encouragement as well.

"So, what do you think?" Leafa asked Kirito while everyone laughed.

"I dunno. What about you?"

"It makes no difference to me." She shook her head, "I'll follow your lead, same as always."

"What do you say?" Keita asked them a few minutes later.

"we're grateful for the offer…" Kirito said, trying to quickly make up his mind. The guild was all looking at him with eager eyes, but Sachi's were more pleading than eager. "We accept."

The guild let out a loud cheer while Keita sent them both a guild invite, which they promptly accepted.

"Welcome to the Moonlit Black Cats." Keita said, followed by renewed cheers by the others.

* * *

"Well that was unexpected." Leafa said after the rest of the guild had gone to their rooms at the inn.

"What? You're unhappy?" Kirito asked, and she just sighed.

"No, I'm not. Like I said, it doesn't make any difference to me. But I figured you'd turn them down like the other guy." She said, sitting next to him, "What changed your mind?"

"...I dunno." He shook his head, "Maybe I'm just being stupid, but I want to help them get stronger."

"Of course you're being stupid." Leafa said, lightly hitting his head, "That goes without saying. But I don't think you're entirely wrong this time."

"Thanks Sugu." He smiled, "Let's get some sleep. I'm sure the guys are going to want to do some hunting in the morning."

"Maybe, but we'll be fine." She said, giving him a peck on the check, "Night, Kazuto."

"Night Sugu." He said with a small blush while she ascended the stairs.

* * *

The next morning, Leafa and Kirito were the first two up, having already ordered breakfast by the time the others came down from their rooms.

"Morning guys." Kirito said, raising a glass of orange juice.

"Morning Kirito, Leafa." Keita waved back to them, "Sleep well?"

"As well as can be expected, I guess." He shrugged.

"Really?" Leafa said, cutting her ham without looking over to them, "I slept like a log."

"You sleep like a log in the wilderness." Kirito reminded her, and she just nodded and kept eating.

"So, I was up all night trying to come up with party combinations, but anyone else have any ideas?"

"I think me and Kirito should be on different parties." Leafa said immediately.

"Really?" Ducker asked, "But why? Aren't you two a team?"

"Not really." Kirito shrugged, seeing exactly where Leafa was going with her comment, "We were in the same party, but we spent most of the time going solo and competing with each other's."

"You sure that's alright?" Keita asked them both, and they traded smirks.

"Oh, we're sure." Leafa answered, "Same deal as always, brother?"

"Most kills wins." Kirito nodded, "Just means we've got a few more players involved in our little game."

With the siblings trading grins, the rest of the guild couldn't help but suppress their shudders at the thought of what they'd become a part of.

"S-So, If Kirito and Leafa are on different parties, that makes things a bit easier." Keita said, "So, me, Ducker, and Tetsuo will party with Leafa. Kirito, you can work with Sachi and Sasamaru. That good with everyone?"

"Sounds perfect." Kirito and Leafa said at the same time.

"The advantage is mine, dear brother." she smirked.

"You could use the handicap." Kirito said arrogantly, then looking at the other members of his group, "So, who's going to be leader? Sasamaru, you want to?"

"No, it's all yours, Kirito." Sasamaru shook his head, "Right, Sachi?"

"Right." She nodded, "Please, Kirito?"

"...Alright." He sighed, sending the two party requests to them both, then facing the leader again, "So, where are we heading, Keita?"

"We're going to move up to floor twenty." He answered, "I don't think we're ready for the dungeon though. So we'll be doing a bit of leveling just outside of the towns. Everyone's got their teleport crystals and potions?"

The guild nodded, while Kirito and Leafa shared a quick look. On floor twenty, they shouldn't have any problem with protecting the others from single spawns. But if something unexpected happened like yesterday, they might not have time to react.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Kirito asked, "I'm just saying, yesterday was a pretty close call. Wouldn't it be better to try and get a few more levels before you advance to the next floor?"

"Our leveling's already slowed down since we reached level twenty." Keita responded, "If we don't take a little risk, we'll never make it to the front lines, will we? I get where you're coming from though. So We're just going right outside the village, into the sunshine forest. The monsters there are about the same level as what we've been killing up on floor nineteen, so they shouldn't pose any more danger than we're used to."

"And besides, with you and Leafa, we'll be fine." Ducker smirked, "Right guys?"

Though neither Kirito or Leafa was convince, they eventually folded and went with the majority. With Kieta paying for the guild's breakfast, the rest headed out the door to the teleport gate and traveled to the first town on floor twenty, Gallia. Checking their equipment one more time while they waited for Keita, Kirito and Leafa broke off from the rest of the guild.

"We'll be okay as long as we don't go near the dungeon, right?" She asked him.

"Probably, but keep an eye open, alright?" He warned her, "First sign that something happens, get them out of the here."

"You too." She agreed as Keita teleported in.

"Let's get a move on." Keita said, his two handed staff already in his hand, and the others roared in approval as they ran for the exit. Kirito and Leafa drew their own blades and followed after them.

* * *

"I want a recount." Leafa protested again later that night while the guild combined their profits from the day's leveling.

"Just admit that I won." Kirito smirked, "You heard Keita. I killed one hundred twenty, you killed one hundred twelve. That means I win."

"And ten of your kills only counted because you did the most damage and let Sachi take the exp." She replied, "That means that without those, you would only have a hundred and ten, so I win!"

"On the topic of letting others steal the exp, I seem to recall Tetsuo keeping exp for more than a few kills you were credited for." He smirked, and Leafa blushed slightly.

"T-T-That's not the point!" she stuttered.

"Just calm down, you two." Keita laughed at the sibling squabble, "We'll have another round tomorrow."

"And I'll win that one too!" Both of them said at the same time, much to the amusement of the guild.

"I never thought that two people would make this much of a difference." Keita said in awe once he'd finished sorting through the loot, "We made almost twice as much as we usually do."

"I-I guess that's cause we had twice as many parties?" Kirito chuckled nervously, hoping no one paid too much attention to the amount of damage that he and Leafa were doing.

"Yeah, that makes sense." Sasamaru nodded, "But imagine what we'd be making if we all went solo?"

"we'd be dead." Tetsuo pointed out.

"Obviously." Sasamaru admitted, "I'm not advocating going solo, but the amount of money that solo players must be making…"

"Doesn't do them much good if they end up dead though." Kirito shrugged, and Leafa snorted into her drink.

"Yeah, I guess." Sasamaru sighed, ignoring Leafa choking on her drink "But maybe one day, we'll be strong enough to just live a solo life on a mid-level floor."

"Come'on, guys!" Keita said loudly, "Where's your ambition? We made the guild to clear the game, didn't we?"

"Yeah, yeah." Tetsuo chuckled, "But it wouldn't hurt to have a backup plan, would it?"

"We won't need it in a little bit." Keita replied, "Just you wait. With Kirito and Leafa on our side, we'll be able to make it to the front lines in no time."

"We're not that good..." Leafa tried to protest, but none of them were about to listen.

"Yeah, you're right, Keita!" Sasamaru agreed, 'With the two of them, we're great!"

"Three cheers for our newest members!" Ducker shouted, and the cry was soon taken by the other members while Kirito and Leafa just blushed in embarrassment.

Late one night, as they'd done almost every night since joining the guild, Kirito and Leafa snuck out of the inn and returned to the front lines to keep up with their leveling. On the plains of floor twenty-eight, they took on the waves and waves of Blood wolfs that had spawned while they waited for the Blood Wolf Leader to appear. Though the wolves attacked in large numbers, it wasn't enough to counter the difference in skills, and they fell easily to the blades of the two beaters.

"It shouldn't be taking so long." Leafa sighed after clearing the field once again, "Usually it would've been spawned after two or three waves, but we've taken out eight of them."

"Maybe it's already spawned?" Kirito thought aloud, "Wanna take a look around?"

"You think a noob might've spawned it by accident?" Leafa asked him but he shook his head.

"Maybe, but we won't know until we find it." he answered, "Let's look around."

The Wolf Plains stretched out all around the town, so Kirito and Leafa split to take a look around. Kirito looked along the western side of the village while Leafa searched to the east. It didn't take long for him to find the Wolf Leader.

A massive pack of wolves surrounded a party, but standing out among them was the large Blood Wolf Leader, engaging the very familiar leader of the party.

"Take this!" Klein shouted, depleting the last of the field boss's hp with one final sword skill. The remains of the pack were in disarray at the loss of their leader, and with a word from Klein, the rest of the group started to tear them apart. Klein looked up and their eyes met. "Hey, Kirito!"

"Sup, Klein." he waved, "Not dead, I see?"

"Some things never change." Klein smiled, looking expectantly around, "So, where's Leafa at? Did she insist on coming to see me?"

"Klein, you were here?" A voice said from behind him and Leafa stepped out from the shadows and walked to Kirito's side, "So, I guess it was them?"

"Basically." Kirito replied, looking back to Klein, who was staring at the ground dejectedly.

"Cheer up." Leafa smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder, "Maybe one day you'll have a chance."

"Yes ma'am..." Klein whimpered, looking back up at them. His gaze shifts up to the left slightly and he gasped slightly, "You guys... did you join a guild?"

"Yeah, I guess..." Kirito shrugged nervously, "Nothing too major. We're just helping out a few of the weaker players, ya know?"

"That's so you." Klein sighed.

"We're good to move on!" One of Klein's guild mates shouted from across the field, having finished with the last of the wolves.

"Got it!" Klein called back, "I gotta go. If you guys need anything, message me, alright?"

"Sure thing." Leafa waved as he ran off.

* * *

As they made their way back to their previous hunting spot, they each received an identical tone. Kirito opened his menu, and opened the message.

It's Keita.  
Sachi ran off somewhere and hasn't comeback yet. We're heading to check the dungeons. Please let us know if you can find her."

"What do you want to do?" Leafa asked after reading the same message.

"Let's get back." He replied, "I'll find Sachi. You want to go check on the others?"

"Will you be alright on your own?" she asked him casually.

"It'll be fine." he shrugged, drawing his sword along with Leafa, "But first we've gotta cut our way back to town.

"Like any other day." Leafa smiled, and they charge the wolves that had surrounded them.

Several minutes later, they warped back to Taft and parted ways. Leafa headed after the guild into the dungeon while Kirito ran up the nearby walls to the top of the tallest building in the city. The searching skill he worked to learn while he and Leafa were going solo proved more than enough to track Sachi's movement to under a bridge. She was silently sitting, hugging her legs to her chest against the wall.

"Hey." He said softly, sitting beside her, "Everyone's worried about you."

"...Hey Kirito." She said without looking at him.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Kirito... I'm just tired of it all..." She whispered, shaking slightly, "I just... want to get away from it all... From the monsters, and the guild, and from Sword Art Online..."

"You aren't talking about suicide, are you?" Kirito asked worriedly, but she just chuckled softly in response.

"I don't have the strength for that." She whispered, "I'm not nearly as strong as she was. If I had the strength to die, I wouldn't be hiding in a town like this. But why? Why do we die for this stupid game...?"

"Yeah, you're right." Kirito replied, "There's no point to any of this."

"I'm so afraid of dying here." She whispered, shivering even in the warm air.

"You won't die." Kirito reassured her, wrapping his arm around her, "Trust me of that, Sachi. I'll protect you."

"You don't think that I'll die...?" She said, her voice shaking like she never even considered the concept.

"I promise." He repeated firmly, "I promise that you'll be able to return to the real world. And I'll protect you until you do."

"Thank you..." Sachi whispered in a voice so soft that he didn't even hear her.

"Come'on." He said, helping her to her feet, "Let's get back to the inn, alright?"

"Yeah..." She said with a small smile as she followed him back to the inn.

After escorting Sachi to her room, Kirito sent Leafa and the others a message telling them that he'd found her before waiting in his room. Leafa sent a message back asking what happened, but he blew off the question. Sachi trusted him with her real feelings, and he wouldn't break that confidence, even for Leafa. Surprisingly, she took his answer in good spirits, without pushing him for more info.

Several minutes after he started to think to himself, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." He said to Sugu on the other side, and the door opened. To his surprise, the one standing on the other side was- "Sachi? What's wrong?" He asked to the girl, who was standing in the doorway, nervously clutching her pillow.

"Kirito, I... I couldn't sleep. Do you think I could stay here, with you?" She said softly, hiding her face in her pillow.

"sure." He said, inviting her in.

She walked over to the bed closest to him and laid down, "Thank you, Kirito." She smiled.

"No problem." He said, "I'll be here until you fall asleep, alright?"

"I appreciate it..." Sachi said, closing her eyes and slowly drifting into a sound sleep for the first time in longer than she can remember.

Kirito sat in silence as Sachi slept soundly on the bed. Once he was sure that she was asleep, he crept silently across the room to the other bed. Just as he was about to climb into bed, there was another knock on the door, the soft tap seemingly echoing in the silent room. Quickly rushing to the door before they could knock again, he opened it to see Leafa.

"Hey." she said, walking into the room, "Good work finding-" Leafa's eyes drifted over to the bed where Sachi was sleeping, and they widened. "Something you want to tell me, brother?" She asked softly.

"It's not what it looks like!" He said in a loud whisper, "Sachi was having trouble sleeping, so-"

"I see..." Leafa nodded, sitting down on his bed, "Then if I wanted to stay and make sure that nothing happened, you wouldn't be against it, would you?"

"Well- Kirito started, and Leafa cleared her throat.

"Allow me to clarify. You won't be against it." She corrected herself, laying back on the open bed, "Good night, Kazuto. And if you try anything, we'll see just how much pain I can inflict before the system stops me."

"Yes ma'am." Kirito shuddered meekly, "But, where am I going to-?"

"There's another bed." Leafa answered, rolling over and closing her eyes, "And if you come near me, I'll show you a new sword skill I picked up earlier this evening."

Nodding his head, Kirito slowly crept over to the other side of the bed Sachi was sleeping on, and thankfully there was enough space for him to slip in next to her. Closing his eyes, he whispered, "Good night, Sachi."

"Good night Kazuto. "She whispered back, making him freeze for a second.

"W-What was that?" he stuttered out.

"Good night, Kirito. "She mumbled with a small blush before falling back asleep.

* * *

Two months after joining the guild, the moonlit black cats had improved by leaps and bounds. With each new level, the guild's confidence grew. Keita's dreams of joining the assault team seemed more and more likely every day.

At Kirito's vocal protests, Keita agreed to remove Sachi from her position as forward, returning her to a backup damage dealer with her spear. While the change resulted in slight decrease in profit from kills, the end result was that she was much safer than before, so no one really minded much. This change also left Kirito as the sole tank for his group, but the difference in level made it easy for him to stay safe.

One night, after a particularly good day, Keita called the meeting to order.

"Listen up, everyone! Keita said as he called the guild meeting to order, "With the results of our last hunt, we finally have two hundred thousand col!"

"About time!" Sasamaru cheered with the rest of them.

"Does that mean what I think that means?" Ducker asked him, and Keita nodded his head.

"That's right. Tomorrow, I'll be heading to the town of beginnings to buy us a proper guild hall."

"Congrats, everybody.' Kirito smiled while they all laughed.

"Why are you guys talking like this doesn't concern you?" Sasamaru asked him curiously, "We never would've made it this far without you!"

"Yeah." Everyone else said at the same time.

"Like they said." Keita nodded, "We owe you guys for all the help. Thank to you, our dreams are going to become a realty so much sooner!"

"We didn't do much..." Leafa muttered, though no one was buying it.

"Once we've got a base of operations, we might actually be able to start recruiting new players. Once that happens, we'll be a top guild in no time!"

While the others cheered happily, Sachi looked around nervously until her eyes fell on Kirito. Letting out a small smile, she joined the rest of them.

Kirito and Leafa traded a look and breathed a joint sigh of relief. If that happened, the guild would be secure, even without them. Just a little while longer.

* * *

"Alright guys, I'll be off!" Keita said from the Taft teleport gate.

"Find us a good place!" Ducker called out to him.

"You got it!" Keita replied, stepping up to the gate, "Teleport, Town of Beginnings!"

With their leader disappearing into the teleport, the Black Cats group around the gate, "Hey guys, why don't we go get some extra col?"

"That'd be great." Sasamaru nodded, "We'll get a chance to get some new furniture, plus it'd help to have some start-up funds for once we have the base, right?"

"I know!" Tetsuo said loudly, "Let's go to a higher floor! We'll be able to get col so much easier than usual, and at our levels, it won't even be a problem, right?"

"Not a good idea." Kirito and Leafa said at the same time.

"You guys worry too much." Sasamaru said dismissively, "As long as we stay together we'll be fine, right?"

"And since there's six of us, we can make do with one party." Tetsuo added, "I mean, with the three of us tanking, and the others on backup, there's nothing we won't be able to beat, right?"

Ducker and Sasamaru nodded their heads in agreement, but Leafa, Sachi, and Kirito remained strongly opposed.

"Come on, guys." Ducker said eagerly, "Think about the money we'll be able to make."

Kirito started to object again, but instead he sighed, "Fine. We'll go.""

"Yes!" Sasamaru yelled happily.

"Kirito...?" Leafa asked questioningly, while Sachi looked at him in surprise.

"Come on." Kirito said, sending the party requests to everyone. Though they were clearly uneasy, both Leafa and Sachi accepted as well.

"Then I'll take the lead." Kirito said, stepping up onto the teleport pedestal, "Teleport, Ronbaru!"

The town of Taft disappeared with the teleport, replaced instead with the mountainous expanse of Floor Twenty-seven.

Leafa was the first of his teammates through the gate, and immediately, she grabbed him by the coat and dragged him away from the gate. "What's the deal?" She asked simply.

"They'd have gone anyway." He shrugged, "You saw that we couldn't convince them otherwise. It's better that we go with them, for safety's sake."

"...Fair enough." Leafa said, letting go of his coat, "Then let's go."

* * *

"Sugu." He said, calling her by her real name instead of her screen name, "If anything goes wrong, get the others out of here. I'll watch your escape."

"Kirito, shut up." She sighed, "Wouldn't it be better for us to deal with the threat together while we protect the others?"

"But that'd be dangero-" Kirito started before sighing as Leafa reached for her katana, "Alright. You win."

"What else is new?" She smirked, "Now let's go."

The afternoon was a great deal more productive then Kirito thought it would be. The combination of the guild mates attacking and the siblings defending, none of them even took any considerable damage by nearly dusk.

"Alright guys, let's just get a bit more before we head back." Kirito said, leading the party down the hall.

"Hey, what's that?" Ducker asked, examining the wall closely. Placing his hand on a slight indent, the wall gave way to a hidden door.

"Holy crap. "Sasamaru said, looking into the center of the room at the treasure chest, "We found a hidden treasure room!"

"No!" Kirito shouted a moment too late. Ducker and Sasamaru had already propped the lid of the chest open. The door to the hall sealed itself, and all around the room, monsters started to spawn.

"We've gotta get out of here!" Tetsuo shouted, pulling out a crystal, "teleport, Taft!"

The crystal didn't break, nor did it give off the blue light of teleport that would lead them to safety.

"An anti-crystal zone." Leafa growled, cleaving a pair of monsters in two to defend Tetsuo and Sachi who were sheltered behind her in the corner of the room

"We've gotta wait it out." Kirito said, parrying a few blade strikes aimed at Ducker and Sasamaru, "Get back to Leafa!"

"Kirito?" Ducker asked, but he ran to Leafa's side immediately. The four weaker members of the moonlit black cats remained sheltered behind Leafa, where at least they'd be safe, but neither of them were fully equipped to deal with a wide scale attack like this.

We've gotta stop the spawning!" Kirito shouted, taking a few hits before he could counter and destroy the monsters. His hp took a small hit, but the many small hits he was receiving were starting to add up.

"The chest!" Leafa shouted, "That's what started the spawn! It should be able to stop them!"

Nodding his head, Kirito charged through the monsters, clearing them out with a sword skill and aiming Rage Spike at the treasure chest. However, as the attack collided, the chest moved and the lid clamped down on his arm. Rather than just some blunt damage, he got a status debuff that he hadn't had since the SAO beta period. Lost limb. His hp plummeted, leaving him one armed against the chest now armed with a row of razor sharp teeth.

"Kirito!" Leafa shouted when she saw that he'd lost an arm, but he couldn't afford to pay her any attention. The chest, now identified as a 'Mimic', lashed out at him again, but he swung his sword to counter attack. The hit did massive damage to the monster, but his sword was caught in the hinge, and its follow-up attack sent the sword flying across the room. Kirito cursed as the monsters around him prepared to swarm.

With only one hand, he couldn't even use his martial arts skill effectively. He had extra swords in his inventory, but the monsters would kill him long before he could get them out.

"Kirito, I'm coming!" Leafa shouted, but the monsters wouldn't let up. Whenever she cleared a path back to him, she'd be flanked before she could make the charge. And Kirito dared not turn his back on the mimic that would have no trouble depleting the last of his HP to zero.

"Leafa!" He shouted in desperation, "I'll take out the mimic! When I do, get everyone out of here!"

"Don't be an idiot!" She shouted back, 'But she wouldn't be able to get to him in time without the monsters killing the rest of the guild.

Kirito's remaining right hand glowed orange, ready to deliver his strongest martial arts skill, Embracer.

"Kirito!" Leafa shouted, but it was too late. The mimic attacked, and he aimed for a counter that would most likely kill him too.

To his shock, a lighting fast spear-tip shoot out from behind him and pierced the mimic straight through the middle, and it exploded into a shower of polygons. The seemingly endless monster spawns stopped immediately, and the sealed passage back to the hall was reopened as well.

Kirito could hardly believe his eyes, but the attack had what could almost be described as a demoralizing effect on the monsters. The string of attack was halted for just a second, but it was enough time for Kirito to regain his composure and bring another sword out of his inventory. Turning around, he saw as he expected, Sachi breathing heavily and clutching the spear close to her chest.

"You saved my life, Sachi." He said honestly, with a small smile, "Don't worry though, this won't take too long."

"Alright..." She panted, collapsing to the ground.

Kirito glanced down at the sword he'd chosen at random from his inventory, his 'Queen's Knightsword +13', the blade he used while leveling on the front lines.

"Leafa!" He shouted, "You take twenty, I'll take the rest!"

"Got it!" She called back to the shock of the rest of the guild. "Sachi, stay close to me, alright?"

"Alright, Kirito." She answered, clutching the back of his coat.

"Then let's GO!" He roared, charging forward with a full powered rage spike. The single straight stab instantly pixelated the dark dwarf miner that got in the way, and the immediate follow-up rendered every monster within a sword's reach of it destroyed as well. Leafa' though still confined to her weaker weapon, was effortlessly destroying the remainder of the monsters. Within a minute, what had been an inescapable death trap was completely devoid of monsters.

"K-K-Kirito..." Ducker gulped, "That was..."

"...Mind-blowing..." Sasamaru nodded, "How were you able to do that...?"

"Let's get out of here first." Kirito sighed at having to be outed in this way, "I'll tell you everything, I promise."

"Alright." Sasamaru said, as he and the others took out their teleport crystals. Then, as one, they said out loud, "Teleport, Taft!"

The light of teleportation surrounded them all, returning them safely to the familiar city center of Taft.

Leading the rest of them back to their usual inn, they found that Keita was already waiting for them.

"Hey guys!" He smiled, waving a key around, "Guess what I got!"

"Great." Kirito smiled, sitting at the bar and ordering a round of drinks for what would undoubtedly be a very tense conversation.

"What's up?" Keita asked after noticing the mood of the guild.

"We were exploring a dungeon and walked into a trap." Kirito replied truthfully.

"Is everyone alright?" Keita asked quickly, doing a count and sighing in relief, "Everyone's alive, so what's the problem?"

"The problem is that Kirito and Leafa dealt with it on their own." Ducker answered, "We were on floor twenty-seven! There's no way that someone at level twenty could fight them off like that!"

"I'm sure there's a valid explanation." Keita assured them, turning to Leafa and Kirito with a trusting smile, "Right guys?"

"The truth is that we're not level twenty." Kirito sighed, "I'm level forty-two, and Leafa's level forty-one."

"W-What?" Keita said in shock, "I must've misheard you."

In response, both Kirito and Leafa opened their stat window and flipped it to the rest of them. There, plain as day, were both of their levels and stats.

"There's no way..." Tetsuo said to himself, "The only players who are that high are-"

"Beaters..." Keita whispered, but all of the black cats heard him clearly.

"Yeah." Kirito nodded, "That'd be m-" Leafa cleared her throat menacingly, "Us." He corrected.

"Why...? Keita asked without elaborating, but he didn't need to.

"Because we didn't want you treating us differently." Leafa answered instead of Kirito, "We really enjoyed spending time with everyone and didn't want it to end."

"Like hell you did!" Sasamaru shouted loudly, "And I guess that's why you let us spring that trap?! Trying to get us MPK'ed so that you could sell all our stuff? Makes sense. That's the only way you beaters can level so fast, after all. By selling out the others."

"That's outrageous!" Tetsuo replied in their defense, "He tried to stop you and ducker, but you guys wouldn't listen!"

"But he didn't try until it was too late!" Ducker said, face red, "And he wasn't even fighting seriously until the end!"

Within seconds, the entire guild was in a full-scale argument, but only Tetsuo and Sachi were talking in their defense. The siblings in question remained completely silent, even when asked questions. The verbal brawl went on for several minutes before Kirito let out a loud whistle that finally calmed them down.

"I'm sorry that we lied to you." Kirito said honestly, manipulating his menu and bringing out all the loot he'd gotten from the earlier trap, as well as a sizeable chunk of his col, and placing it on the table and tapping his menu one more time, "Maybe its best if we go our separate ways."

"Kirito-" Sachi said, stepping forward with a pleading look on her face, but Keita cut her off before she could finish.

"Maybe it would." he said, accepting the request to leave the guild from Kirito, and another from Leafa, "But you can keep all of this."

"Yeah. We don't need your damn charity!" Ducker said, mistaking his leader's good will.

"We won it while fighting with the guild, so it's yours." Kirito replied, turning to walk away, "Goodbye guys. It was fun."

"Later." Leafa said, following behind him. The door to the inn shut behind them, and the cats sat around their table like they always did, short two for the first time in two months.

"I can't believe you kicked them, Kieta." Tetsuo said, shaking his head, "I mean, they might have lied to us, but they both risked their life to save us earlier. And we wouldn't have gotten half as far as we did without them. You can't deny that, Keita."

"Are you serious?" Sasamaru replied, "If we let them stay with us, we might actually die next ti-" he was stopped by a loud slap to the face that left him and every other member of the guild stunned.

"How could you..." Sachi shouted tearfully, turning and delivering an identical slap to ducker, "How could you do that?! After everything that they did for us...?"

"Sach-" Keita said, trying to calm her down, but she just turned and slapped him as well.

"You're no different!" She said, angrily smashing the leave guild option on her menu and storming out after Kirito and Leafa despite the rest of them trying to convince her otherwise. As she walked, she opened her friends list and tracked them to Ronbaru on floor twenty-seven.

"Sachi!" Keita shouted after her, "don't do thi-"

Sachi just tearfully shook her head and teleported out of Taft.

* * *

"That sucked." Kirito said for the fifth time since they'd arrived on floor twenty-seven and rented a room at a nearby inn.

"Yeah, I know." She replied for the fifth time, "But it was bound to happen one day, and besides, we were planning to leave soon, right?"

"Yeah, but I was hoping that we could at least leave on good terms with them." he sighed.

"Well, keep them on your friends list." She answered, getting up and stretching, "Anyway, I'm heading to bed. See you in the morning?"

"Sure." He said, ordering himself another drink, thankful for the first time that Aincrad didn't care whether you were of age to order alcohol. Getting drunk did hamper his senses a bit too much for him to actually fight monsters, but he wasn't going to be doing midnight training for a while, so that wasn't a problem.

After a few hours of eating and drinking away his sorrow, he turned back to stagger up the stairs and sleep off his drunk debuff, and saw what he first thought to be a hallucination.

"Hi, Kirito..." Sachi said softly from the table right next to him?"

"Sa...chi?" He said to himself, and she nodded, "How long have you been here?"

"Um... three, four hours?" She replied, "I tried talking to you, but I think you weren't really paying much attention..."

"Sorry." He replied, sheepishly scratching the back of his head, "What are you doing here?"

"I can't go back to the way the guild used to be." She answered with a slight tremor, "And... you said that you'd protect me, right?"

"Yeah." He nodded, "So what will you do now? I mean, it's not like we're in a guild anymore, and what about the Moonlit Black Cats?"

"I don't know." She sighed, "I left the guild, but I didn't really think about anything beyond that..."

"We can think about it in the morning." He yawned, extending his hand for Sachi to take, "Come on."

* * *

The next morning, Leafa yawned herself awake and looked around the room for her brother, who almost never woke up before her. It didn't take more than a second for her to find him, and he wasn't alone.

He was sleeping soundly on the couch, with Sachi of all people, both of them leaning against each other peacefully. Smiling slightly at the content look on her brother's face, though not without a bizarre twinge of jealously at having him stolen by Sachi ('Wait, why is this a problem again...?' She thought to herself), she removed the blanket from the queen size bed in their room and wrapped it around the two of them before heading downstairs for breakfast.

* * *

So, once again, Merry Christmas! For those Sachi fans, your present is that she stays alive! If you hate Sachi… You shouldn't have been so naughty this year. After all, what did poor Sachi ever do to you?

The next chapter's done and in the trusty hands of my beta (in fact, the next four chapters are with him.) so you can hope to see them soon. Until then, go ahead and review, the same as always.


	9. Guilds

RWBY 9

I'm back! Good news is that the next batch of chapters are all beta'd, so I should be able upload a bit more regularly. Sadly, it's a bit shorter then usual, but hopefully it'lll still be okay.

Anyway, here's chapter 9 for your enjoyment.

Discliamer: I own neither SAO nor RWBY.

* * *

"Get a move on!" Kibaou shouted from the head of the column of players that made up the Aincrad Liberation Army, "We haven't got all day!"

"This is disgraceful." Weiss said aloud, ignoring the fact that everyone had turned and was looking her way, "Why do we have to move all of a sudden anyway?"

"Because." Kibaou answered, "We sold the Palace, so we have to move to the new headquarters in Horunka."

"You sold the palace?" Weiss sighed, looking not at Kibaou, but at the guild's leader Thinker.

"We didn't have much of a choice." He shook his head, "We can't sustain the army anymore if we used it. There's too much ground to control, and we just don't have the manpower anymore. not since we lost almost all of our high level players on floor twenty-five."

"Yeah." Kibaou snorted, "Figured you'd already know that, since you survived that massacre."

"Says the coward who didn't even fight.' She laughed, "You haven't fought in a boss raid since… Floor two? And I'm not saying that we should keep using it as headquarters, but it seems wasteful to sell it so early. Shouldn't we have kept it for once we've regained our forces?"

"That was the plan, yes." Thinker nodded, "But we received an offer we just couldn't refuse."

"Like what?" Weiss asked, "What offer could be worth-"

"How about triple the price we paid for it?" Yulier said from Thinker's right, "And now, when we need all of the resources we can get, we weren't in any position to refuse."

"What idiot has that much Col, and would waste it on-"

"I think his name was Ozpin?" Thinker said thoughtfully, but he shook his head, "Either way, what's done is done. We need to keep moving."

"Honestly." Weiss sighed as the large group kept moving, "This is getting me nowhere."

Several hours later, the guild was settled in the obscure village of Horunka on the outskirts of the Town of Beginnings, in a moderate sized player made hall. While most of the guild headed to their room to rest, Weiss approached Thinker and Yulier who were still sorting through guild affairs.

"Excuse me." She said, drawing their attention to her.

"Ah, Weiss, how can I help you?" Thinker asked, moving the map of Floor thirty-two aside.

"Sir, I'd like to leave the guild." She answered, and thinker sighed.

"I was afraid you'd ask that." He nodded sadly, "May I ask what brought this on?"

"I'm just not sure that this is working out." She replied, "it's not the right fit for me."

"I understand." He nodded, and she sent the request which he accepted immediately, "Weiss, I know I that haven't said it before now, but I'm truly grateful for all the hard work up until now. If you change your mind, you'll always have a place here."

"Thank you." Weiss bowed politely before leaving the Army's new headquarters.

* * *

"Not a bad haul this time, huh?" Yang asked her teammates on their way back into the main town of floor forty-nine from the dungeon, "Got a few rare drops, forty thousand col, and Blake found herself a new sword."

"True, but the dungeon's been harder than usual to clear this time." Blake replied, "And there seem to be fewer people on the front lines these days."

"You can't blame them." Ruby sighed, "After floor twenty-five, most people have been second guessing themselves. Even the army was basically wiped out, and they were the strongest guild around."

"Well, as long as there someone else to fight with, I'll be here." She shrugged, "And in this game, there's no shortage of idiots fighting for fun." Glancing at the city ahead of them, she grinned, "Speaking of idiots, Leafa! Kirito!"

"Yo." Kirito said, turning around and waving, "You guys doing alright?"

"As good as can be expected, I guess." She shrugged, "I haven't seen you guys around for a while. Everything okay? Still going solo?"

Kirito winced slightly in response to her question, "Well, we were in a guild for a little bit, but… they didn't take too kindly to us being beaters…"

"Well, that sucks." Blake said sadly, "So is that why we haven't seen you around?"

"Yeah, the guild was based on floor eleven, so we haven't been spending much time on the front lines until a few weeks ago." Leafa nodded, "Anyway, you guys going anywhere for dinner?"

"Just back to the inn, I guess." Yang replied, "Why? You offering to treat?"

"In a manner of speaking." Kirito replied, "Come on. We've gotta go down to Tolbana."

"Oh?" Yang smiled curiously, "Lead the way then.'

The five walked through the streets of Myujen to the central market, and then to the teleport gate. One by one, they teleported down to the first floor, then Kirito and Leafa lead the way to their most recent base of operations.

"We're back." He said, opening the door to their modest two bedroom purchased house.

"Welcome back." A female voice called out from the next room, "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes!"

"I hope you made extra." Kirito replied, "We ran into a few friends while we were out."

"Um… what's going on...?" Yang whispered to Leafa.

"We've a… housemate…" She chuckled, "She doesn't do much fighting, but she's strong enough to take care of herself down here, so she watches the house and cooks and such."

"That's awesome!" Ruby cheered, "You guys have a maid!?"

"S-she's not a maid...' Kirito stuttered, but the voice giggled.

"Sounds about right, Kirito." Sachi said, poking her head out of the kitchen, "Good evening, everyone. My name is Sachi."

"Yang." She introduced herself while making Ruby bow her head, "And this is Ruby. I'm really sorry about my sister. She just talks without thinking."

"It's fine." Sachi giggled, 'Besides, it makes it seem like I'm not just a freeloader."

"You're not." Kirito answered, "Besides, we'd starve without you, and that'd be seriously uncool."

"And far be it for my seriously cool brother to do something uncool." Leafa snarked, "Why, just this afternoon he slid in a puddle and almost cut off his own head in the most cool way possible…"

"T-T-That's not what happened!" Kirito stuttered, his face beet red, "See, I was luring it in for a sneak attack so that you'd have time to heal!"

"I had a crystal, brother." she sighed, "I don't need time to heal, remember?"

All of them shared a laugh at Kirito's expense, and Blake stepped forward to introduce herself before they all stepped into the kitchen were several large pots cooking on the stove.

"My cooking skills not that high yet, so it might not be very good…" Sachi said while everyone's stomachs started to growl.

"You're too modest, Sachi." Kirito shook his head, "Those lunches you packed for us were fantastic."

"He's right." Leafa nodded, "It was the best food we've had since we arrived in Aincrad."

"You're too kind…" Sachi said with a blush while Ruby and Yang started to drool.

"Lucky." Yang whined, "Hey, Sachi, make lunches for us too!"

"Yang!" Ruby scolded, "I'm sorry about my sister…"

"N-No, it'd be no problem…" Sachi stuttered quietly.

"Hey, Sachi, here's a thought...' Kirito grinned, "Why not charge them...?"

"You wouldn't!" Yang gasped.

"Kirito, be nice." Sachi scolded him as the timers went off, "Alright, time to eat!"

The small dining room was filled to capacity with the six of them, but the meal was more enjoyable then any they'd had in a long time. Sachi's cooking really had improved by leaps and bounds since they'd bought the house. All of them let out a contented sigh.

"That was wonderful…" Yang said happily, "There really is no comparison between NPC and player made food."

"Amen…" Everyone else nodded, much to Sachi's embarrassment.

"I'm glad that everyone liked it." she blushed, "Any preferences on dessert?"

"Cookies!" Ruby shouted immediately, and yang sighed again.

"Forgive her. But we've taken up quite enough of your time." She shook her head

"It's not a problem." Sachi assured her, "But I'd need some ingredients to make cookies. Give me a few minutes to run out to the store."

"What do you need.' Ruby said immediately, bringing up her inventory and materializing everything she had from farming including the fruit and flour.

"T-That should be plenty." Sachi stuttered, looking through the large assortment of items and grabbing a handful (including the strawberries that Ruby was quite quick to point out) before heading back into the kitchen.

"You really are greedy." Yang sighed.

"Am not"! Ruby said, sticking her tongue out at her.

"So, why are you carrying all this stuff around?" Kirito asked while Sachi hummed happily in the kitchen.

"I grew it...? "She answered questioningly.

"Oh, that's right." Blake nodded to herself, "You guys don't know how Ruby got her scythe, do you?"

"Oh yeah, they didn't hear the whole story." Yang smiled, "It's a pretty interesting story, really. It all started with a need for virtual strawberries…"

As the three girls filled them in on how Ruby's strawberry craving led her to obtain her recent moniker, 'Red Reaper', Sachi returned to the room, bearing a tray of delicious smelling shortbread cookies topped with half strawberries and homemade whipped cream, along with a few tall glasses of milk. Ruby's eyes lit up as soon as she placed them down in front of the group.

"Please, help yourself." She said, taking her previously held seat beside Kirito. Ruby needed no further instruction, and her hand darted forward and grabbed the largest of the cookies and shoved it in her mouth.

As soon as she swallowed it, she got down on the floor and shouted, "You are a goddess!"

"Good, I take it?" Yang asked, looking at the confused Sachi with an apologetic look before reaching over and trying one of the cookies herself. "You'll forgive me for not bowing, your holiness, but I can say that these are the greatest dessert I've ever had."

"Blasphemy!" Ruby shouted, going for her scythe only to forget that she had put it away for dinner and instead grabbed two more cookies. After two rave reviews, the remaining three quickly went for cookies before Ruby channeled her inner dragon and began hoarding the priceless treasures. Within minutes, the plate was picked clean of even the crumbs, and all parties were gulping down the accompanying milk.

"So, I think that recipe's a keeper." Kirito said plainly once they'd all had their fill.

"Definitely." Everyone agreed, and Sachi blushed again.

"it wasn't that good…"

"Blasphemy!" Ruby repeated, but then gasped, "Forgive me, Goddess!"

Thank you very much, Sachi." Blake said earnestly.

"I-It wasn't any trouble…" She said to no one while hiding behind Kirito.

Yang raised an eyebrow at her action, but said nothing and got to her feet, "Thank you very much for having us, Kirito, Leafa, and of course, Sachi. We had a wonderful time."

"Sure thing." Kirito nodded, giving Sachi's hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Co-come back any time." Sachi said with a slight bow while the three rose to leave.

"We will!" Ruby nodded endlessly.

"Good bye." Blake said to the three who saw them off.

Unbeknownst to any of them, a woman sat at a nearby coffee shop, making a note of the encounter to send back to the guild leader.

* * *

The next week passed quickly, with many more visits from Yang's party. In addition to coming for dinner every other day, Sachi had worked out a deal with Ruby (her self-proclaimed devotee) where she would provide their party with lunches in return for a steady supply of fresh, farmed ingredients. Late one Friday, news tore through the front lines that a party from Beacon, the guild that had replaced the Army as the premier clearing guild, had found the boss room. As a result, Kirito and Leafa called it a day early and returned to town.

"Great minds think alike." Yang said from right next to the teleport gate with the rest of her team, "I think we better have a little pow-wow over at your place. Sound good?"

"Sounds great." Kirito said, "Let's go then."

As soon as they appeared in Tolbana, they were all surprised to find a party standing outside their little house.

"Good day, Miss Yang." The leader, a woman with dark brown hair and a black beret smiled at them, "How are you?"

"Fine." Yang replied calmly, "Who are you, what do you want, and how did you know I'd be here?"

"My name is Coco." She answered, "This is Fox-' she indicated the dark skinned, red haired young man next to her, "Velvet-" The young woman with rabbit ears on top of her head, "And Yatsuhashi." The final man, with short black hair, inclined his head slightly, revealing the hilt of a sword as tall as he was. "As for why we're here, we want you to join us."

"Guild recruiters then." Yang nodded, "I'm assuming you know the rule?"

"If one of us beats you, you join." Coco answered, "Of course, we'll offer a considerable amount of Col as compensation should you win."

"Deal." Yang smiled, "After you answer my last question."

"How we knew you were here?" She smiled, "We've been watching you for a while. Well, not us, but one of our associates."

"Stalkers."

"Not stalkers." Coco corrected her, stepping back while Fox took her place, "We've wanted you to join us for a while, and we needed information."

"So, you'll be my opponent?" Yang asked as Fox sent the dueling request.

"I hope that's not a problem?" He asked, and in answer, she chose the half loss option and accepted. The timer between them started to count down from sixty, and both sides readied their weapons. Yang's gauntlets had gone through a number of improvements, but appearance wise they remained the same. Meanwhile, her opponent wore similar weapons, but with two blades running up by his elbows.

"Not bad." Yang said to the new weapon, "Haven't seen those before.'

"Exactly why I'm your opponent.' He responded, and the timer expired. Both sides charged as soon as it did, and exchanged punches. Since neither used a sword skill, the damage was minimal, but the impact was just as real as the real hit. Both of them staggered back, then countered with two different skills. Yang's just grazed the side of his arm, but his skill landed directly on her stomach. Her Hp took a hit, but not enough to cause her to worry until she saw that the skill wasn't dissipating. A multi-hit skill. Before she could move to avoid it, the fellow up attack slashed her across the chest, followed by another slash that left a red X on her chest before one final strike to dead center of the X dropped her HP to the yellow. The duel ended immediately afterwards, and Fox stepped back.

"Nice hustle, Fox." Coco said, patting him on the back.

"It only worked because she wasn't expecting it." He replied, looking back at Yang was picking herself up off the ground, "I wouldn't win a second time."

"Thankfully, you won't need to." She shrugged, "Well, Miss Yang?"

"I'm a woman of my words." Yang answered, "And what guild would this be?"

"Welcome to Beacon." Coco smiled, "Ozpin will be waiting for you at the Black Iron Palace in the Town of Beginnings."

"Yeah, I'll be there…" Yang sighed.

"Well then…" Coco said, turning to Kirito and Leafa.

"After us now?" Kirito asked her, but she shook her head.

"We haven't got any way to beat you two." She said, "Not without the element of surprise anyway. But I did get charged to deliver a message from Ozpin."

"What's that?" Leafa asked her.

"He said 'We await you in the Town of Beginnings. With your help, the Beacon of hope can be kindled.'" Coco said in an overly mystic voice.

"Yeah, when relaying a message, you don't have to make a fool of yourself…" Kirito sighed.

"Ozpin's orders." Yatsuhashi answered.

"So-" Coco said, clearing her throat with a slight blush, "we'll be heading back. Yang, looking forward to working with you."

"Fine, whatever." Yang replied, ignoring them as they walked away.

"That was unexpected…" Blake said after a few minutes.

"Come on." Kirito said, gesturing for them to follow, "Sachi's waiting, and we've got to make plans for the boss raid, right?"

* * *

So, Yang's officially joining beacon next chapter! It should go without saying that she won't be joining alone, so you've got something to look forward to for next time.


	10. Beacon of Change

RWBY 10

So, I know I said I had a few reserve chapters, but my beta pointed out a few things that needed to be rewritten, and he only just finished the revised versions last night. SO I'm sorry for the wait, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own SAO or RWBY. I also don't own any other letters of the alphabet, but that's not important right now.

* * *

"So, it's that time again...?" Sachi asked worriedly, looking from Kirito to Leafa and back over to Yang's party.

"Yeah." Kirito replied, "We've gotta keep going in order to clear the game, right?"

"Yes, but…"

"You don't have to worry." Leafa assured her, "We'll be back before you even know it."

"Not to worry, Sachi." Yang nodded as well, "These two will be fine. As long as these two are with us, I feel sorry for that boss."

"Alright then." Sachi smiled, "I'll leave them to you then."

"They're in good hands." Yang nodded, "So, shall we talk strategy?"

"Won't you be talking strategy with your new guild?" Leafa asked, and Yang just groaned.

"Don't remind me…"

* * *

The next morning, Yang left the inn she was staying at with the rest of her party and teleported to the Town of Beginnings. The massive Black Iron Palace loomed over the city as always, housing the Beacon Guild. Waiting in the center of the plaza was a woman with long blonde hair. Her weapon, oddly enough a riding crop, was strapped to her leg.

"Good morning, Miss Yang." she said casually, "I've been expecting you. My name is Glynda"

"So, you knew I wasn't going to try and run off?" Yang asked.

"If you were the type to go back on your word, then we wouldn't have wanted to recruit you." She chuckled, "Anyway, please come with me. The guild master is expecting you."

Following after the woman, Yang couldn't help but look around the Town. The majority of the players were already gone, but there were still somewhere around two thousand players in the city, too afraid to leave.

"Difficult to look at, isn't it?" The woman asked her, "So many people have already died. Is it any wonder that so many would rather live their lives where it is safe?"

"No, but it's… a lot more depressing than I'd expected." She answered, looking at the hundreds of players clinging to tree branches waiting for the hourly fruit respawn. Others were curled up in the dark alleyways sleeping or crying.

"It is. Life in this city is hard if you're too afraid to leave it." She nodded, "There are people who can't make money at all, going hungry every day and sleeping on the streets. Those are the kind of people we're trying to help. Clearing the game is only part of the equation."

"What do you mean?" Yang asked her.

"No matter how hard we try; we can't clear the game in a single day. It will take us a long time, even if everything goes right. In that time, if we ignore the ones living lives of sorrow, it will only lead to senseless death. Do you know how many people have committed suicide since this game began?"

"No…" Yang replied, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

"Two hundred eighty-one." she said, stopping and looking back at her, "It is our belief that that number should not increase. In addition to clearing the front lines, we devote a portion of our resources to aiding players in the town of beginnings. Partying with them to help raise col and levels, handing out small sums of money to ensure that players can eat and sleep properly and the like."

"What's the point?" Yang asked, before quickly correcting herself, "I mean, that seems like an awful lot of trouble without much in the way of rewards, ya know?"

"Tell me, do you think we can win with just the players on the front lines?" Glynda asked her again.

"Well, yeah, we've been doing alright so far…" Yang replied to the sudden question.

"At the moment, yes, we're doing alright." she nodded, "But what about fifty, sixty floors down the road? The chances are high that as we get progressively further, the number of people willing to risk their lives on the front lines will decrease as well. We need to inspire the same self confidence that we all share in the rest of the players. If more players are encouraged to fight, the game will be cleared all the quicker. Besides, as you should know by now, the col required for a player to survive on floor one is a drop in the bucket compared to what we earn on the front lines."

"I guess I can't really deny that one." Yang shrugged while they passed through the gates of the Black Iron Palace.

Standing in front of the building was a familiar white haired man, holding a cane in his right hand.

"Good morning, Yang." he said with a wave, "Glynda, thank you for your good work."

"Of course, sir." She answered, stepping aside.

"While I was waiting, we had a few new recruits come by, and they're waiting inside." he answered, "please make sure they're ready for tomorrow morning."

"As you wish." She bowed, walking past him into the building.

"Now then, Yang, let's go for a walk, shall we?"

"If you say so." Yang said, following him until he stopped a few feet away.

"And you two-' He said with a small smile, "Please, come out."

"You knew we were there?" The familiar voice of Ruby asked from behind her, and she turned to see both her little sister and friend walking through the gates.

"I would have been quite disappointed if you weren't." Ozpin replied, "Though I have to wonder why you're here. Are you merely curious, or were you interested in joining?"

"Um… Join, I think?" Ruby answered, "If you'll have us."

"I said I'd be needing your help, didn't I?" Ozpin asked, looking to Blake this time, "And while we haven't talked much, I can certainly see the advantage of having someone as skilled and… unique as you."

Blake's eyes narrowed, but she didn't respond to his comment.

"You guys sure about this?" Yang asked the two of them.

"Of course." Ruby said like the answer should've been obvious.

"We've been a party together this long, so why change it now?" Blake asked with a shrug, "Besides, being in a guild will probably be better in the long run."

"So then, let's proceed with this then." Ozpin smiled, opening his menu with his left hand and casually tapping it a few times. Three identical windows appeared in front of each of them.

'Will you accept the invitation to join 'Beacon'?'

At almost the same time, they accepted the request. Beside their status bar, they each received an icon shaped like a roaring flame appeared.

"Excellent." Ozpin said once that was out of the way, tapping his menu again and bringing three teleport crystals out of his inventory, "Now, each of you take one of these."

"What for?" Ruby asked, taking one of the crystals.

"There is a… test... tomorrow." He said cryptically, "Nothing too major, I assure you. Thought you might want to have a healing crystal ready in case you miss your timing."

"Missing the timing?" Yang asked, "What's that mean?"

"In due time." Ozpin chuckled, "Now, I'll have more instructions for you tomorrow morning. Until then, feel free to take the day off. Regroup here tomorrow morning at eight."

"Alright." Blake said calmly, "Then good day."

"Later." Yang waved.

"Bye." Ruby said, turning to walk away.

"A moment, Ruby." Ozpin interrupted her, "I'd like to say that I'm glad you decided to return to the front lines. I do hope that your trip to floor one was… enlightening."

"Not really." Ruby answered, "I mean, I picked up a new skill and all, but that's about it."

"Perhaps, but you gained something far more valuable than merely a scythe skill." Ozpin said vaguely before walking back into the Black Iron Palace.

* * *

The three woke up at seven the next morning, and after a quick breakfast, they headed down to floor one. The streets were just as depressing as they day before, though this time there were several guild members walking around and recruiting the citizens for an excursion outside the city. Judging from their equipment, they were high leveled too.

When they arrived at the black iron palace, they were met by an incredibly hyperactive green haired man with a mace clipped to his belt.

"Ah, Miss Yang and her party! Excellent!" He said quickly, sipping coffee from the thermos in his hand, "And you arrived earlier than expected! Very well done. Now, gather around and I'll explain the specifics of the test today. First and foremost, my name is Oobleck."

"So… will this be a written test?" Ruby asked nervously, and he just chuckled.

"Of course not. Why, what purpose would a written test do for ascertaining your skills in this game in which we find ourselves trapped?! No, no, what we'll be testing today is your skill in combat as well as decision making and teamwork."

"Oh." Yang smiled, "See, Ruby? Told you it wasn't anything to worry about."

"Now, hold on." He continued, "There are a few things you must take into account first. First of all, Miss Yang, I believe you are the leader of this party?"

"Yup." She nodded, "Why?"

"Please, dissolve the party."

"How's that going to help our team-" Blake started, but he sipped his coffee and held up his hand.

"Now hold on and let me finish." he said quickly, "We need to see not only your individual and group skills, but also your ability to adapt to changes in your environment. As such, we'll be pairing you up randomly with another player you meet during the test."

"So we're teaming with some stranger?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Perhaps. "he said quickly, "Of course, a wise player might make plans to ensure that they team with someone with whom they already have good chemistry, but the choice is yours. And even then, you'll have to party with the first person you see, so best keep out of sight if you plan to do so."

"Wait. hold on a second." Ruby squeaked, "So, we might get paired up with someone outside the party...?"

"A very real possibility." He nodded, "So, are there any questions?"

"Um…" Ruby started again, but then the bell started to chime over the Iron Palace.

"Looks like it's almost time." Oobleck said, cutting her off, "Now, in roughly thirty seconds, you'll be teleported into the dungeon on floor twenty-two, where you will undertake this daring task. The job of each pair is to retrieve one of several treasures hidden in the boss room, then make your way back through the dungeon to the entrance. Ozpin and Glynda will be waiting there to give you your 'grades'."

"Got it." Yang nodded, "Alright, floor twenty-two. It's a pretty big forest, but there's that one giant tree in the center, so let's meet there."

"I feel like there's something I'm forgetting…" Oobleck frowned as the chiming bell grew louder. Finally, the crystals started to glow and he gasped, "Of course! Of course, of course, of course! Everyone, be very careful. Your crystals are set to roughly two hundred fifty feet above the surface of the dungeon."

"WHAT!?" All of them screeched, but the crystals teleported them against their will.

When Ruby opened her eyes, she was in a free fall into a massive sea of trees. all around her, dozens of other players were in similar state. With all the other players, it was almost impossible for her to discern which of them were her friends. Instead, she set her sights on the massive tree in the center of the forest.

"Okay…" Ruby said, taking a deep breath and hooking her scythe blade on the top tree branch of a nearby oak. The scythe sliced clean through it without breaking her fall, but it slowed her enough for her to trigger a sword skill, 'Hook' which caught the next branch and sent her flying forward. A second time, she redirected herself to the ground, sliding safely across the dirt without losing much of her hp.

The tree they marked as their meeting place was still visible over the tree line, so she readied her weapon and advanced through the maze of trees. The mindless mobs ran at her, but her sword skills made mincemeat out of them (And received it as a drop!) and she made her way ever closer to the tree. Unlike every other floor, though, she didn't have the layout memorized. The assault team tore through the floor in just over a week, so it barely had any time to leave an impression on her.

After making yet another wrong turn in her empty pursuit of the giant tree, she slashed at one of the tree in frustration, "Why can't I get there!?"

A twig snapped behind her, and she spun around with the tip of her scythe glowing only to find herself face to face with a familiar white haired rapier user. The two froze for a second at the sight of each other before responding the exact same way.

"What are you doing here?!"

* * *

"Ruby's late." Yang said, swinging lightly from the branches of the largest tree, "Any ideas?"

"Well, should we be worried?" Blake asked from the shadows, where Yang should not have been able to see her...

"Probably not." Yang admitted, "Ruby's just as strong as either of us, so she won't lose to anything on this floor. But she still should've been here by now."

"She probably got lost." Blake chuckled, and Yang couldn't help but nod. Of all the answers, that did seem the most likely.

"Anyway, Blake, mind if I ask you something?" Yang said after a few minutes of silence.

"Might as well. "Blake sighed, "We haven't got anything better to do for a little bit."

"Blake, you're a Faunus, aren't you?" Yang said softly, and behind her, Blake took a sharp breath, "It's fine if you don't want to answer. It's a bit of a personal question, isn't it?"

"...No, it's alright." Blake said after a minute, "Honestly, I should've told you guys before now. You're right. I'm-"

"Yang!" Ruby shouted, running into the clearing.

"Ruby!" Yang called out, jumping down from the branch, "What kept. you…" She stopped her sentence when she saw the white haired girl from the floor two boss raid, "What are you doing here?" She asked harshly.

"The same thing as you." Weiss huffed, "And don't look at me like this is my fault. I tried to ignore her but Ozpin sent me a message saying I had to partner with her… Where's he watching us from anyway...?"

Almost at the same time as she finished speaking, she received another message. Bringing it up, she inadvertently read it aloud, _"Weiss, please don't ask questions above your paygrade. Ozpin." _

"Someone got owned by PM." Yang grinned. "So ruby, you got her as your partner?"

"It's not so bad…" Ruby chuckled nervously, "I mean, she's pretty good in a fight."

"Ruby, you realize that she-" Yang started, but she sighed, "Whatever. Let's just go and get this over with. The sooner this test is over; the sooner she's gone."

"My thoughts exactly." Weiss said happily, skipping across the clearing to one of the many corridors, "So, if we just take this path here, we'll make it to boss room."

"The boss room is this way." Yang and Blake both said at the same time, pointing to the same path.

"I think I know my way to the boss room just fine." Weiss huffed, "Unlike some people, I actually fought in the boss battle."

"I know that's a lie." Yang said instantly, "Since we fought the boss too."

"Shut up!" Weiss shouted, stomping her foot, "Let's go, Ruby. They'll see that we're right."

"Um, but…" Ruby started, but Weiss stormed off down the wrong path. Looking back at her teammates, she shrugged, "Sorry guys! We'll meet you there, okay?"

"Ruby…" Yang sighed, but Ruby had already ran off after Weiss, "Great. So much for sticking together."

"You want to follow after them?" Blake asked her, "It doesn't' make any difference to me."

"Nah, we'll go on ahead." Yang shook her head, "If nothing else, we'll be able to rub it in Weiss' face."

Yang turned away from the path her sister and Weiss had taken and headed onwards towards the boss's room.

* * *

"Hey, Ren?" Nora asked from the tree branches above him, "Where do you think the others got off to? I mean, I knew I'd be able to find you, and I knew you'd be okay even if I didn't, but if Pyrrha didn't find Jaune, he could be eaten! Or killed! Maybe maimed! Though that last one's not much of a problem since this is a game. Hm... I wonder if we could feed our hunger stat by eating someone's limb..."

"Nora." He said before she could consider the plan any further.

"Yes Ren?" She asked like she didn't know what he was going to say.

"I'm pretty sure cannibalism is considered harm." He reminded her, "And do I need to remind you that you already have two strikes? If this keeps up, you might end up orange forever."

"Those weren't my fault." Nora said cheerfully, "I'm sure that the GM won't hold them against me. I mean, Ruby asked for it, and that other guy, well, he might as well have asked for it."

"He told you to be quiet so you wouldn't give away our position." He reminded her.

"I know." She nodded, completely missing the point of his comment, "I can't believe he said that either."

"Nora." He sighed, "Just shut up."

Surprisingly, she listened to him and didn't reply. Unfortunately, he realized all too soon why that was. All her noise had drawn a monster towards them, and she had a devious glint in her eyes, before he could warn her not to do anything stupid, she grabbed his arm and jumped, dragging him with her because of her insane strength stat. The two of them landed onto the back of the strange black creature, which immediately started bucking for a few moments before breaking into a full speed random run around the forest. All the while, Nora was laughing wildly.

* * *

"Okay, now I'm starting to worry." Yang said, finally standing up after staring at the door for two hours. half a dozen different teams had already shown up and left, but there was no sign of Ruby and Weiss.

Blake opened her friends' list for the umpteenth time, "According to the map, she's about a hundred feet from the door."

"Then why isn't she-" Yang started to ask when the door exploded in. Both of their weapons were drawn within seconds, but it was meaningless. The bizarre black creature with only two hind legs and a pair of razor sharp teeth fell forward as the girl on its back casually dusted herself off.

"Aw…. It's broken." She sighed as the beast exploded into polygons. A familiar young man staggered into the boss chamber, looking exhausted.

"Nora… never do that again." he said, collapsing up against the wall. Yang and Blake ran over to check on him and saw that his HP was in the red.

"He fell off." Nora shrugged, hanging the hammer on her back.

"Wait, did you just get all the way on a monster's back?" Blake asked, taking out a healing crystal and restoring Ren's HP.

"Of course not." Nora grinned, "Just most of the way. "

Once his HP was back to full, Ren breathed a sigh of relief and stood up, "Thank you, Blake."

"No problem." Blake replied.

"Where's Ruby?" He asked, looking around the empty chamber while Nora grabbed one of the Rook pieces and started chanting 'I'm queen of the castle!', "I thought for sure that she'd beat us here."

"Why?" Yang asked immediately, and Ren pointed at the door.

"Because on our way here, we saw her flying from the sky and landing in the branches above us." He replied, and Yang ran out the door.

* * *

'We've gotta be getting close now." Jaune said after cutting his way through a thicket of vines blocking his advance, "The boss room should be just up ahead, right?"

"Jaune, actually, I think it's probably back the other way." Pyrrha tried to warn him, looking backward to the cliff that housed the boss room. Instead, they were wandering deeper and deeper into the dungeon, and the thicket Jaune cut had a strength requirement that would've been more than any of the clearers could've dealt with at the time when floor twenty-two was the front lines.

Unfortunately, Jaune wasn't paying her any attention. Instead, he was staring a deep tunnel into the ground with an excited grin.

"We did it, Pyrrha!" He cheered, running down into the tunnel.

"Jaune, no!" She shouted, running after him, but soon after they passed through the entrance, the light of the sun behind them disappeared, leaving him engulfed in total darkness.

"Whoa!" Jaune gasped after walking into a wall for the fifth time, "Okay, you know what…" He grumbled to himself and Pyrrha heard him tapping furiously at the menu, "Here we go." He said triumphantly, "Ignite!"

A flash of dim yellow light formed around his hand, or more precisely around the small yellow crystal in his hand.

"And you said that this light crystal wasn't worth buying." He smirked.

"I stand corrected." She nodded, "It's not bright, but at least we won't be walking into walls. Still, we have to be careful. There's no telling when a monster might jump out at us."

"We'll be fine." Jaune assured her, walking confidently through the tunnels with his light crystal held out in front of him. As soon as they turned the corner, the dim light caught on something in the air. Something large and gold.

"That must be it!" Jaune said, stepping forward, "I knew that the relic would be something awesome like this. Let's hurry and bring it back to the guild master. I'm sure we'll be the first ones."

"Jaune, I don't think that's a good ide-" She said calmly, trying not to alarm him, but he stepped forward and grabbed for the golden object. It recoiled slightly, causing him to miss.

"Stupid thing." He said, snatching at it again, and again it moved out of the way. Stomping his foot angrily and ignoring Pyrrha's cry of protest, he jumped up and grabbed it with his entire body.

"Jaune, no!" she shouted as the golden 'relic' started to shake violently, and with it the caves.

* * *

The next chapter is beta'd (I mean it this time!), so I'll be trying to upload it next week if life allows. Next chapter will see the end of the test, along with a bit of a fight. More importantly, there's a bit of a change from canon at the end.

Until then, feel free to leave a review.


	11. Teams RWBY and JNPR

RWBY 11

This is the last chapter I have beta'd, though I've got another one waiting, so it hopefully won't be long before I upload it In the meantime, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or SAO. I am just a fan.

* * *

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this!" Weiss shouted at Ruby behind her, but it was hard to hear her over the wind.

"It's a lot quicker than wandering through the dungeon!" Ruby replied loudly, gripping the feathers of the giant bird they were riding, "After all, the only tree big enough for this thing to nest is the big one, so we just have to wait for it to go back!"

"And then it can eat us!" Weiss roared, "Or feed us to its babies!"

"Well then why don't we just jump!?" Ruby replied, and Weiss shook her head in amazement.

"Are you insane?!" She asked, but didn't get a response. After she turned her head, she saw Ruby was gone, "Are you kidding me!?"

* * *

As soon as she left the boss room, Yang scanned the skies. it took her a few minutes to spot the red cloaked girl hanging from one of the branches, struggling to free herself.

"Ruby!" Yang shouted, and Ruby looked at her.

"Yang!" She shouted back, renewing her efforts to free herself.

"Stay still!" Blake yelled after spotting her, "We'll come get you!"

"Okay!" Ruby answered, but all the struggling finally paid off and the branch broke. Ruby let out a scream as she freefell from a hundred feet up Yang and Blake both ran to try and break her fall, but to no avail. Just when she's about to hit the ground, there was another, louder scream as a familiar blond boy crashed into Ruby and sent them both crashing into a nearby tree.

"Ruby!" Yang screeched, running over to inspect the crash site. Both Ruby and Jaune were stunned from the impact, and their HP wasn't much more than a sliver, but they were alive. Yang ripped a healing crystal from her bag and it shattered, restoring Ruby's HP at the same time as Ren restored Jaune's.

"Ow…" Ruby groaned, rubbing the back of her head and staggering to her feet, "What happened...?" As soon as she saw Yang, the memory came flooding back, "Yang!"

"Ruby!" Yang said, holding her arms wide to embrace her sister.

"NORA!'" Nora shouted, standing between them.

"Where's Weiss?" Yang sighed after the tender moment with her sister was ruined.

"Up there?" Ruby said questioningly while she glanced up at the sky. Yang and the others looked up as well, but it took them a few moments to catch sight of the white clad figure clinging desperately to the back of a massive raven with a white skull mask.

"Wait, you were riding that thing?" Blake asked her incredulously.

Ruby just shrugged, "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

"She's going to fall." Yang said simply.

"Oh, she'll be fine." Ruby replied.

"She's falling." Ren said, and Ruby's eyes snapped back to the giant bird, and the figure falling towards them. Before they could react, Jaune was climbing up the tree and jumped to catch her.

"Just dropping in?" He said with a grin while Weiss just rolled her eyes as they fell. Jaune landed first, sustaining much more damage than Weiss, despite the considerably shorter fall when compared to Weiss.

"My hero." Weiss said blandly, climbing off of him and chugging a health potion, before turning angrily to Ruby, "And you! What is wrong with you?"

"I got us here, didn't I?" Ruby replied, and the bird above them let out a loud screech.

"Yes, and now it wants to eat us!" Weiss responded.

"That's not all we've got to worry about." Ren said, pointing into the forest where an armored red haired woman was deftly dodging the stinger and claws of a large scorpion.

"Didn't we already kill one of those?" Nora said, drawing her hammer again, "So boring."

"Let's go help her-" Yang started to say, but Pyrrha ran out of the forest while the scorpion was caught behind the trees.

"Hello again." She said without even breathing hard, "I didn't think that we'd all meet up here."

"Yeah, great." Yang said sarcastically, "Now we can die together."

"No we won't." Ruby said, running into the boss room and snatching the knight piece, "We don't have to fight them. All we have to do is get back to the entrance and we pass."

"Run and live?" Jaune asked, "I can live with that. Just let me grab a relic."

Grabbing the white rook, they eight ran back into the dungeon, with the scorpion and raven on their tail. The mazelike twists and turns of the forest that had been only a minor nuisance prior to them acquiring the relics suddenly became deadly as they were forced to dodge attacks from the two creatures. Before they were even halfway to the entrance, the entire party was out of healing crystals.

"Split up!" Pyrrha shouted, after they dodged another volley of feathers shot at them from above by 'The Nevermore', "We can't escape if we have to fight against both of them!"

"And what if they both try and follow one group!?" Yang said back, countering a sting from 'The Death Stalker'

"Easy." Ruby replied, jumping back and racking her scythe across The Death Stalker's face. At the same time, Pyrrha tossed a javelin high in the air and hitting The Nevermore's foot.

"See you back at the entrance!" Jaune whimpered as he led Pyrrha, Nora, and Ren down a side path, trailed close behind by The Nevermore.

"Finally!" Yang sighed, 'Now that we don't have anything to worry about from above, let's take it out."

"Are you insane?!" Weiss asked, but instead of an answer, Yang turned around and smashed The Death Stalker's pincher with a roundhouse. The pincher was blasted away and the monster let out a screech as its HP decreased slightly.

"Let's go, Weiss!" Ruby said, eagerly running towards the boss while spinning her scythe. Blake likewise had her katana ready and followed just behind her.

"You're all mad." Weiss said, shaking her head and running away from the crazy fight.

The others hadn't even noticed she was gone as they deftly avoided the random strikes from the Deathstalker.

"Yang, above!" Ruby shouted, slowly chipping away at the Death Stalker's armor when it was poised to strike at Yang, who was gleefully pummeling it's face with her gauntlets.

"Got it." She called back without looking away, deftly sidestepping the stinger at the last possible second. In that instant, Blake swooped in and delivered a flurry of eight consecutive slashes at the base of its stinger, where the armor was weakest. For the first time in the battle, the death stalker's hp dropped noticeable, and it let out a shrill screech that made the hairs on the back of Ruby's head stand on end. Too late, she realized that while it was screeching, it was still moving.

One of the pincers came up faster than she could react, and she was sent flying backwards, the paralysis icon visible by her HP gauge. Across from her, the second pincer knocked Blake into the forest. Ignoring Blake, who was now outside it's field of vision, the Death Stalker turned instead to the down Ruby, who still hadn't recovered enough to move. Yang desperately hammer away at its legs, trying to slow it down. But her attacks weren't effective enough.

With its stinger poised to strike the immobilized Ruby, she tried to pulled herself out of the way, but she didn't have the strength.

Just when she was about to give up, there was a flash of light and seven slashes of silver filled her vision.

"You see; this is why I said it was a bad idea." Weiss sighed from in front of ruby, her seven slashes dropping the Death Stalker's HP just a bit. "You do realize that without me you'd be dead right now, don't you?"

"Yeah…" Ruby said dejectedly, standing up quickly once the paralysis wore off and jump away from the stunned death stalker.

"You were still here?" Yang asked, regrouping with Ruby and Weiss while Blake hurried towards them.

"Of course I was!" She huffed, "I couldn't very well leave everything to this little kid, now could I?"

"Ozpin forced you to come back, didn't he? Blake asked, but aside from a sideways glare, Weiss didn't respond.

"It's down to its last HP bar, so let's finish it off." Yang said once the scorpion broke free of the stun.

"That's my line." Weiss muttered, but her sword glowed silver immediately.

"Yang, you and Blake draw its attention." Ruby shouted to her sister who'd already taken off to stop it in its tracks, "Weiss and I will take it down."

Yang didn't acknowledge Ruby's request, but she and Blake kept it busy regardless. The combination of Yang's power blows and Blake's swift combinations left it no time to worry about Weiss and Ruby creeping over to the side.

"So, do you have a plan this time?" Weiss asked her critically, her rapier held calmly in front of her.

"...Maybe?" Ruby shrugged, and Weiss just sighed.

"Well, let me know when you find out." Weiss said, dashing forward and hitting the Death Stalker with quadruple Pain. The four blows immobilized the boss for just a second, which ruby took advantage of. With her newest skill, 'Slayer', Ruby dashed forward and hacked off the tip of its stinger. The stinger fell away and shattered its armor.

"Now!" Yang shouted, her gauntlets glowing gold, "Hit it with everything you've got!"

All four of them used their strongest skills in quick succession. First Blake landed her three hit 'Ukifune' skill, then Yang delivered a soul crushing 'Meteor Break', followed immediately by Weiss' six hit combo 'Crucifixion'. Ruby's skill was last since she had the most recent skill delay, but she put everything into her attack, 'Demise'. A simple spinning slash that cut the Death Stalker down the center, shattering it into polygons.

* * *

"Alright, now what?!" Jaune shouted as he and his group led the Nevermore away from Ruby's group.

"Keep running!" Pyrrha replied unhelpfully, "We can't effectively attack from here!"

"There's a path up the cliff ahead." Ren suggested, panting from exhaustion, "If we can slow it down a bit, then maybe we'll be able to make it there."

"On it!" Nora said happily, holding her massive hammer in one hand and grabbing hold of a nearby tree branch. Pulling herself up into the tree, she swung the hammer up with a streak of orange. Her skill knocked the nevermore back slightly, but its hp didn't decrease by much. It did, however, inflict the delay debuff.

With the boss' movement slowed, the four of them ran up the path to the top of the cliff. They made it to the top just as the Nevermore reached the base of the cliff and started to ascend, gaining speed with each passing second.

"Now what?" Pyrrha asked Ren, who shook his head.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead." Ren answered, "But we can't attack a flying opponent unless we have the high ground."

"There's only one thing we can do…" Jaune sighed, taking a few steps back and then barreling forward at full speed.

"Jaune, no!" Pyrrha shouted when he threw himself off the cliff, but when she looked down she saw that he'd grabbed hold of the Nevermore's feathers and was clinging onto them for dear life.

"Yeah!" Nora laughed, following suit and delivering a brutal swing that caused its hp to plummet.

Ren just sighed and jumped as well, slicing into it numerous times before it managed to peck him, knocking him away.

After seeing her three teammates risk their lives to try and defeat the boss, Pyrrha threw away her hesitation and jumped after them. the Nevermore tried to peck at her on the way, but she blocked with her shield and stabbed it in the eye with her sword. It let out a shrill shriek and batted her away with its wings, but Jaune grabbed hold of her sword and kept it buried into the beast's head. Its hp fell with every passing second, and its movement grew more and more erratic.

Finally, just as Jaune couldn't hold it anymore, Nora knocked him off the bird's back and slammed her hammer into the hilt of Pyrrha's sword. The sword shattered almost immediately, but the boss shattered as well from the combined force of the two attacks.

At the base of the cliff, all four of their hp gauges were in the red, either from the straight fall like Jaune and Nora, or the additional damage from being pecked on the way down. All of them had also been stunned by the fall, putting them in a dangerous situation. Thankfully, the location was away from most major monster spawn points, so the chance of being attacked while they were recovering was-

A loud growl echoed off the cliff and a wolf like creature charged out of the forest. Inches from Jaune, however, it's cut in half by a red scythe.

"Everyone okay?" Ruby asked, her party running right behind her.

"yeah, thanks to you…" Jaune gulped after finally being freed from the stun. Rubbing his neck, he shuddered, "A few more seconds and I'd be dead."

"Come on, gang." Yang grinned once everyone had taken a health potion, "Let's finish this damn test."

With the eight of them moving together, the path to the dungeon's entrance wasn't even a challenge. As he'd said, Ozpin and Glynda were waiting patiently for them.

"Good afternoon." He smiled at them after they were safely out of the combat zone, "I trust you all accomplished your mission?"

One by one, the pairs showed him their chess pieces, and he nodded his head to each of them.

"Excellent work." he said, "Made even more impressive by the fact that both of your parties were able to defeat a boss monster on your own. even if it's on a lower floor, that is no small feat."

"Meh, no big deal." Yang shrugged.

"We couldn't have done it without Weiss." Ruby added, "Thank you for sending her back to help, Master Ozpin."

"...Really?" He said with a raised eyebrow to Weiss, "I do not recall sending any message ordering her to assist you."

"But, Weiss said-" Ruby started, but Weiss cut her off.

"No I didn't. You said it, I just didn't correct you." She huffed, "Can we just drop it? Honestly, if I ever have to party with you again, it'll be too soon…"

Ozpin chuckled slightly, "Actually…"

* * *

"Wait, what?" Kirito and Leafa asked at the same time, staring at a fuming Weiss in the corner of their dining room.

"Yeah, apparently Ozpin's making us an official team." Ruby chuckled.

"And as if that wasn't bad enough, of all the people, why-" Weiss shouted, glaring daggers at Ruby, "did he name YOU team leader?"

"You're being too hard on her." Leafa smiled encouragingly at Ruby, "I'm sure Ozpin has his reason, so give it a try at least."

"Yeah." Yang nodded, "After all, she did pretty good earlier, didn't she? We'd have been dead without her plan."

"Her 'plan' as you call it was to attack it and hope it died!" Weiss shouted, "That might have worked today, but what about when we get back to the front lines? That kind of 'plan' would be suicide against bosses on the higher floors. We barely made it out with our lives this time."

"Then why not try helping her instead of complaining?" Kirito asked when Leafa opened her mouth to reply.

"What's the use in teaching a child?" Weiss huffed, turning to walk to the door.

"...Thinks she's right about everything, expects to get everything she wants, and throws a fit when she doesn't get it." Blake said, drawing everyone's attention to her for the first time since they arrived, "Maybe Ruby's not the child here."

Weiss opened her mouth to complain, but before she could, Sachi reentered the room carrying several trays of food.

"Dinner's ready, everyone." She smiled, placing the food down in front of them, "Please, help yourself."

"Thanks, Sachi." Kirito said, happy for any excuse to finally end the conversation, "So, did Ozpin mention anything about the coming boss battle?"

"Yeah, he apparently wants us to take part." Ruby nodded, wasting no time in digging into the food in front of her, "He also wanted you both to know that you're welcome to take part in the battle, regardless of what the others say."

"Tell him we appreciate it." Leafa said, taking her own plate while everyone else started eating, "Just think, once we finish it, we'll have reached the halfway point."

"Hard to believe, isn't it?" Yang sighed, looking up at the ceiling, "We've been in this game for over a year already. And the way things are going, we won't back it back for another year at least. That is…" Yang didn't finish the thought, but no one in the room needed her to.

The first half might be over soon, but there's no telling if any of them would live to see the end of the game.

* * *

After a grueling battle, the boss of floor forty-nine was defeated. Thanks to the leadership of Ozpin and Heathcliff, there weren't any casualties, and it was the work of Heathcliff who finally brought its HP to zero. The group let out a cry of victory as they each received their loot, and once their health was restored, the raid group climbed the staircase to floor fifty.

"I thought we were done for a few times." Leafa sighed while they walked, "Thanks, Ruby. You saved me back there."

"No problem, I'm happy to help." The girl in the red hood smiled at her, stowing her scythe when they passed into the safety of the first city of floor fifty.

"We've gotta train harder." Kirito said softly, so only his sister could hear him, but she just nodded her head.

In the center courtyard of Algade, Heathcliff strode forward and tapped the teleport gate. The moment the familiar blue light burst into existence, the entire group cheered. Within seconds, dozens of players teleported in from the other floors, many of them players who had never left the Town of Beginnings, and the clearer guilds split up to start the celebratory party.

The party didn't last long though. twenty minutes in, just as Kirito was started to drift off to sleep in his own little corner of the courtyard, the entire area was filled with the sounds of bells.

Everyone froze, and Kirito sat up quickly. This was the second time they'd heard this sound. The first time was…

Just like back on floor one, hundreds, maybe even thousands of players teleported in against their will.

"Not again." Someone cried out, and everyone started talking until the red system message started flashing in the sky.

"Everyone, calm down!" Heathcliff shouted over the noise, and slowly they all complied.

Like the first day, a bloodlike substance started to drip from cracks in the sky. Every eye in the game watched as the substance formed the faceless hooded game master.

"Greetings, Players." Kayaba said in a booming voice, "Let me start by saying congratulations. Though it's taken you eighteen months, you have officially reached the halfway point of Sword Art Online."

"Why's he here?" Kirito asked himself, "He can't just be here to congratulate us, can he?"

"I doubt it, but we'll find out." Leafa said, pointing back to Kayaba in the sky.

"Up until now, the system has been registering every action you've taken throughout the first half of Aincrad." Kayaba declared, "Every quest you've undertaken and every item you've sold. Your fighting patterns and your sleeping patterns. The monsters you've killed and the players you've traded with. Even the most mundane piece of data has been registered and examined to determine exactly what kind of player you are. As of now, each of you have been assigned a unique skill correspondent to your own choices and abilities. Whether you already have your skill or it needs to be unlocked varies from player to player, but the skills will surely be of considerable aid as you work to clear the second half of the game."

The entire plaza was almost completely silent as each player checked their skill list. Kirito and Leafa included.

"Nothing." Leafa responded, closing her menu.

"Dual Blades...?" Kirito read from the bottom of his skills list.

"As in dual wielding?" Leafa asked, peeking over his shoulder. Sure enough, at the bottom of his skill list was the Dual Blades skill.

"I hope you all continue to enjoy yourselves as you struggle through the second half of Sword Art Online." Kayaba said as his avatar dissolved once again.

* * *

So, there you have it. I decided to give everyone a unique skill, in place of the the RWBY character's semblances. Obviously, they'll have skill variants of their semblances, but who knows about Sachi, Leafa, and the other SAO characters? Besides me, obviously, but I'm not telling. Feel free to leave any guesses in reviews, though don't expect me to confirm or deny any such suspicions.


	12. Flower of the Battlefield

RWBY 12

Merry Christmas everybody! Got a couple of chapters reserved for just such an occasion, and I figured that I probably needed to at least give an update sooner rather than later, so here you go.

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or SAO. Obviously.

* * *

"Wanna call it a day here, Kazuto?" Leafa asked after checking the time and seeing it was already after eight, "Sachi'll be expecting us back soon."

"Yeah, might as well." He answered, sheathing both his dual swords (it had taken him weeks to master sheathing them both without making a fool of himself or cutting himself.), "But let's walk back to town. It can't hurt to get a bit more exp and col, right?"

"As always, you're such a pain." Leafa sighed, putting away her teleport crystal before following him back towards the entrance to the dungeon. It'd been a few weeks since they reached floor fifty, and the entire game was still buzzing about the new unique skills. It seems like every day, there's some new and amazing skill that a player had gotten somewhere. They ranged from Kazuto's dual blades to the ability to forge magic weapons and armor that one girl had gotten from a personalized quest.

The abilities were so varied that there were even 'Skill Mediators' that helped find someone with a skill to fit your needs. Argo had, of course, cornered the market on that almost immediately, but every now and then someone would pop up trying to compete with her...

Even after that time, though, Sugu hadn't found her skill. There was nothing out of the ordinary on her skill list, and no new quests that looked like they could give her anything of value.

"Sugu!" Kazuto shouted, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"What's up? "She asked quickly.

"You okay? You've been spacing out for a few minutes." He answered worriedly, "You didn't even notice the last fight."

"Sorry, Kazuto." She sighed, "Just thinking."

"About the unique skills?" Kazuto guessed, and she nodded slightly, "Don't worry about it. It'll come. And I bet it'll be a hundred times cooler than my stupid swords."

"That should be obvious." Suguha smirked, "After all, I'm so much cooler then you."

"Sure you are…" Kazuto shrugged, letting her believe her delusions while they continued walking the path back to the last town of floor fifty-five.

At the center of the main plaza, just a few feet from the teleport gate, a crowd of people had gathered. The two siblings shared a look before joining the crowd.

"Please!" A voice said from the very front of the crowd, "Can't someone help me?"

"Look, man, it's not that we can't…" A guy from the holy dragon alliance sighed, looking down at the player who clearly wasn't a member of the assault team, with armor only slightly better than that of the Moonlit Black Cats, "But no one's going to deal with an orange guild without getting paid for it, and you said yourself that you don't have any money."

"But-" He tried to respond, but the holy dragon alliance member just shook his head and walked up to the Teleport gate. The crowd around the mid-level players looked at him with pity, but no one stepped to help him and slowly the crowd dispersed.

"Hey, Sugu…" Kazuto said a moment later, "Think you can last a few days without me?"

"You're an idiot." She sighed, already knowing exactly where he was going with that question, "Sure you won't need any help?"

"As long as it's not laughing coffin, I should be fine on my own." He replied, "I'll message you if I need any back up. Take care of Sachi for me, alright?"

"Sure thing." She waved when he ran over to the player crying in the middle of the plaza.

* * *

Kazuto wandered calmly through the Forest of Wandering, where Argo said that the leader of Titan's Hand was. As far as dungeons go, it wasn't all that big, but the countless twists and turns made it almost impossible to not get lost. It took way longer than it should have for the boss group to find Nicolas the Renegade for the Christmas Event. That, along with the monsters that were slightly above the average level resulted in the Assault Team mostly ignoring it on their first pass through the floor.

Of course, even if they were slightly stronger than other monsters on the floor, they could never pose any real threat to him now.

"This is getting to be such a pain…" He sighed. But Argo hadn't sent him a message yet, which means that her source (whoever that was) could confirm she hadn't left the forest. He'd been scouring the forest since dawn, and it'd been two days since he had tried to track her, across multiple floors and about a half a dozen dungeons, as well as three separate parties.

Just when he was about to resign himself to another day of searching and heading back to the inn, a loud scream echoed through the forest. Fearing that Titan's Hand was making its move, Kazuto sprinted forward through the monster infested woods. Up ahead, he could see three Drunken Apes gathered around a little girl. Her HP was in the low yellow, but against three of them, she wouldn't be able to heal before they got her.

Drawing the Elucidator from the sheath on his back, he dashed forward and delivered a deep blow to each of the apes. All three of them shattered instantly.

"You okay?" He asked, sheathing his sword and walking towards her, then he saw her holding a feather. The sparkles of light around the edges were something he'd only seen a few times before, when a familiar was killed in battle. "I'm sorry. If I'd just been a few minutes faster, I could've saved your friend."

"No, it's okay… "She shook her head after wiping away her tears, "Thank you for saving me. You did the best you could."

Her sincere voice actually made him feel slightly worse about not making it in time. "Listen, does it have an item name attached to it?" He asked quickly and she tapped it and started tearing up again.

"It's… Pina's Heart…"

He breathed a small sigh of relief and quickly knelt beside her and put a hand on her shoulder, "That's good." he told her, "It means that we can revive her."

Her eyes perked up immediately, "...Really...?" She asked worriedly, and he nodded.

"Up on floor forty-seven, there's a dungeon called the hill of memories." He told her, "At the end, there's an item that is able to revive familiars. I don't mind getting it, but the item won't appear unless the familiar's master is nearby."

"Floor forty-seven, huh…" She frowned, "I wouldn't want to trouble you. It might not be for a while, but I'll go myself lat-"

"But the time limit is three days." he said, making her gasp, "After that, Pina's Heart will become Pina's Remains and they can't be revived."

"Three days...?" She said tearfully, "But that's…"

Kirito manipulated the menus and tossed some of the loot from his last expedition on floor fifty-five into a trade window, and sent it over to her, "This should be enough to get you a few levels., I can handle the rest."

"You'll really help me...?" she asked, and he nodded, "Thank you so much! I know it's not enough to cover it, bu-"

"It's fine." He replied, accepting the col she offered, "But it looks like we'll be together for a bit longer. The name's Kirito."

'I'm Silica." She said, accepting a party request from him, "Thank you, Kirito."

"Don't thank me yet." He answered, then heard something coming from behind. Quickly drawing his sword again, he spun around just as a purple haired girl ran in with a one handed long sword in her hand. She was wearing black breastplate over a purple dress, and a red headband that pulled her hair back.

"Silica!" She sighed, running towards them, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Yuuki." Silica said, "What are you doing here? Didn't you leave with the others?"

"Not really." The purple haired swordswoman replied, sheathing her sword on her waist, "I tried to follow you, but I kinda got lost. But I came running when I heard you scream. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Silica assured her, "Mr. Kirito saved me."

Yuuki turned to Kirito and smiled, "Thanks for saving my friend. My name's Yuuki."

"Kirito." He introduced himself, "So, you guys are in a party?"

"Were." Silica corrected him.

"One of our teammates insisted on taking Silica's healing crystals just because Pina has healing brea-" Yuuki started before she stopped. Looking around the clearing, she asked, "Hang on, what happened to Pina?"

Silica's expression fell, "Pina... died saving me."

Yuuki knelt down and hugged Silica tight, "I'm so sorry. If I'd just been a little bit faster…"

"Mr. Kirito's going to take me up to floor forty-seven to get an item to bring her back." Silica told her, "So it'll be okay."

Yuuki smiled at her, but she glanced over at Kirito, "Mind if I ask why you'd go out of your way to help Silica?"

"It's… kinda embarrassing…" Kirito mumbled under his breath, but Yuuki kept glaring at him so he sighed, "She looked so helpless… and it kinda reminded me of my little sister."

Silica and Yuuki both stared at him in amazement for a second before the burst out laughing wildly. While he scratched his head in embarrassment, he could've sworn he heard something snap behind him.

"What's wrong?" Silica asked when his head snapped around to check, but since he didn't see anything he decided not to bother with it.

"Nothing. Just thought I heard something." He replied, "So, Silica, wanna head back to town? I can pay for a couple of rooms for the night and we can head out in the morning."

"Yeah, let's go." Silica nodded.

"Hey, Kirito, mind if I tag along?" Yuuki asked, "I'm not all that high a level, but I'm still pretty good in a fight."

"...Yeah, sure." Kirito answered after a few seconds of thought, trading her a few of his old swords and armor, "These should protect you from the stronger monsters."

"Wow…" she said, examining the items he traded her, "These are amazing! Where'd you get them?"

"Training up on floor fifty-one." He replied, "They were what I used before I got my current gear. Its durability isn't perfect, but it should last you a little while."

"Floor fifty-one?" Silica gasped, "B-But that's on the front lines!"

"I guess that explains why you're willing to just give this stuff away." Yuuki said, equipping the new gear, "So, what guild are you with? Knights of the Blood Oath? Beacon? Holy Dragon?"

"Nah, I don't do guilds." He chuckled, "You guys have crystals? It'll be a lot easier to just teleport out of this place."

"Rosalia took all my crystals…" Silica mumbled softly.

"Here, take one of mine." Yuuki said, materializing a second from her inventory, but Kirito beat her to it.

"Allow me." He said, tossing her one of his spares, "I've got plenty."

"T-Thank you." Silica stuttered, almost dropping the crystal.

"So, back to Mishe then." Yuuki said, and all three of them teleported away.

* * *

Once he and the girls had made it back to town, Kirito sent Leafa a message filling her in. It didn't really sit well with him that he was hiding the real reason for teaming up with them, but there wasn't any cause to concern them, and it gave him a chance to help a few lower level players.

Just as he took off his coat to go to sleep, there was a knock at the door.

"Who's there?" He asked, standing up from the chair.

"It's just us. Can we come in?" Yuuki's voice said from the other side of the door, "Silica wanted to talk for a little bit."

"Sure thing." Kirito responded, opening the door, "Besides, it might not be a bad idea to go over the plan for tomorrow."

"Cool." Yuuki smiled, walking in and practically dragging Silica with her, "I've never been as high up as floor 47 before. What's it like?"

"You didn't even go for the opening ceremony?" He asked, and Yuuki's hand twitched slightly.

"...No, I was busy." She said softly and too slowly to be believable. Even Silica looked a bit surprised, but Kirito didn't push the issue.

"It's also called the flower garden." He said, removing the map he created while he and Leafa were clearing it, "Really nice place. I remember taking a nap or two just outside of Floria…" He sighed, laying back on to the bed, "As far as floors go, it wasn't all that tough, and since we're not going near the main dungeon, we should be fine."

"Have you been there before?" Silica asked, sitting across from Yuuki in one of the chairs in the corner, "To the Hill of Memories, I mean."

"My sister and I passed through to do some training, but we didn't do much exploring beyond the path." With a smile, he added, "Not to worry, though. I know the way to the item spawn. I've never found it since I don't have a familiar, but for you, you should be able to revive your friend no problem."

"I wasn't worried." Silica smiled, then thoughtfully asked, "You mentioned your sister before. What's she like?"

"She's a lot like me." He admitted, "But she's never played an MMO before Sword Art Online, so she always seems to find trouble when I'm not there to help he-"

Yuuki shivered and interrupted him, "Anyone else just get the chills?"

"Y-Yeah." Silica nodded, and Kirito sprinted towards the door. From the other side, he heard someone running away, and by the time he opened it, they were gone.

"What's wrong?" Yuuki asked when Kirito sighed and locked the door again.

"I got careless." He said bitterly, "Looks like someone was eavesdropping on us."

"They can't." Both girls said at the same time.

"They can." He shook his head, "It's not a very common skill, but if your listening skill is high enough, you can hear even without knocking."

"That's stupid." Yuuki shouted, "What's the point of raising a skill that doesn't help to clear the game!"

The question took him by surprise, but more surprising was the fact that she genuinely seemed to be unsure why they would.

"You see how our cursors are green?" He said, pointing to the icon above their heads, "That's standard for all players. Monsters are red, passive monsters and pets are yellow, etc. But there are also players who break the rules. Attacking players, stealing, and generally causing trouble will cause your cursor to turn orange. Those are the kinds of players who would have an interest in eavesdropping. For example, they might overhear a group of players planning to get a rare item and decide to ambush them."

Yuuki's eyes widened, "No way…"

"It gets worse." He said grimly, "It's not an official color, but there are also Red Players. Better known as Player Killers."

"But what's the point!?" Yuuki shouted, "There has to be some reason why they'd just-!"

"It's just a problem with MMORPGs." Kirito replied sadly, "Some people just like playing as the bad guy. Combine them with a group of players who think that the death game isn't real and it was bound to happen sooner or later."

"...So stupid." Yuuki muttered, and both of them nodded in agreement.

"Unfortunately, there's not much we can do to change it." Kirito sighed, "We just have to clear the game as fast as possible and make sure that the murderers are held accountable IRL."

"Still stupid." Yuuki replied bitterly.

Afterwards, the mood had shifted too much to resume talking about the trip to Floor 47, so with a quick good night, Silica and Yuuki returned to their rooms. With the door locked behind them, Kirito sent a PM to Leafa and headed to bed.

* * *

The trip through the Hill of Memories was much smoother than even Kirito had expected. Despite her low level, Yuuki's sword skills were nearly as good as his, and with his old sword boosting her damage, nearly everything they encountered was destroyed before he even got a chance, and despite her appearance, Silica was surprisingly good once she'd gotten a feel for the monsters. In the short afternoon, both of them had grown a level or two.

"This is great!" Yuuki sighed happily, eating one of the store crafted lunches they'd bought on their way out of town, "You know, I was expecting a bit more of a challenge. These guys aren't that tough."

"You're just too good." Kirito responded, eating his own lunch. Beside him, Silica had barely touched hers, "What's wrong?" He asked, and she jumped slightly.

"Sorry." She said sheepishly, "I was just thinking about what I want to tell Pina when this is all later."

Smiling at the earnest smile on her face, he stowed away the remainder of the lunch and stretched, "Let's get a move on. The Pneuma Flower is just around past this next section."

"Yeah, let's go!" Yuuki said happily, having just finished her meal. Silica looked only too happy to return her lunch in favor of continuing their quest.

Unbeknownst to the girls, a group of players was stalking them just out of sight.

Just before dusk, they made it to the deepest part of the dungeon. There, as Silica approached the spawn, a flower sprouted. As it grew, an item name appeared above it.

"The Pneuma Flower." Kirito smiled, patting her on the back, "Don't use it just yet though. It would probably be best to wait until we get back to town. No sense in risking Pina getting hurt again before then."

"Okay!" Silica smiled, wiping some tears from her eyes and stowing the rare item safely in her inventory.

As they walked back, Yuuki was alerted that she'd received a pm, but looking at it, she was surprised to see that it was Kirito.

**Yuuki,**

**We're about to be attacked by some orange players. Protect Silica. I'll handle the rest.**

She opened her mouth to speak, but he shook his head. Glancing over, she saw Silica's smile had returned for the first time since the night before, and she realized that he didn't want to put a damper on that happiness for as long as possible.

Besides, since they had crystals, there was nothing to worry about.

Just before they crossed the last bridge back to town, Kirito held out a hand to stop them, "Whoever is hiding, come out now." He ordered, stepping forward. Across the bridge, a figure stepped out from behind one of the trees.

"I'm impressed." Rosalia smiled, brushing the hair out of her eyes, "If you could see through our hiding skill, your detection skill must be pretty high."

"Rosalia, what are you doing here?" Silica asked, and Yuuki stepped in front of her with her sword drawn.

"Hello, Silica, it's wonderful to see you again." Rosalia smiled, twirling her spear around her hand, "Now, be a good little girl and hand over the Pneuma Flower and no one gets hurt."

"What?" Silica blinked in confusion.

"No one's giving anything to you, Rosalia." Kirito replied, "Or to the Orange Guild Titan's Hand. You are their leader, aren't you?"

"Aren't we clever?" Rosalia smiled, snapping her fingers. A half dozen man, all orange players, stepped out from the nearby forest, weapons drawn and cutting off their path forward. "I have to wonder though, if you knew about us, why bring her here? Are you stupid or does she have you wrapped around her little finger?"

"Neither." He answered, stepping out onto the bridge, "You see, I was hired to track you down, Rosalia. You remember ten days ago, when you attacked a guild called the Silver Flags? The leader survived, but four didn't."

"I remember them." She scoffed, "The losers with no money."

"Their leader went back and forth, from the warp point to the frontlines, from morning to night. Begging everyone he could find to avenge his dead friends. But he didn't want you killed. He wanted you to sent to prison. Do you have any idea what that must have been like for him?"

"Not really." She admitted, "After all, only idiots believe that dying in the game means you're dead IRL. Anyway, it's about time for you worry about yourselves."

The group grinned, brandishing their weapons menacingly.

"Kirito, let's go!" Silica pleaded, holding her teleport crystal in front of her. He turned back and gave her a small smile.

"Don't worry about it." He said, walking towards them while drawing his sword, "This won't take long. Yuuki will protect you."

"Kirito-!" One of the men gasped, almost dropping his twin axes.

"Rosalia, this guy-! He's a beater with the assault team!" One of his friends shouted, looking at their boss in fear.

"Don't be absurd." She scoffed, "Why on earth would a member of the assault team be all the way down here? They're just trying to freak you out. Kill these wimps and take everything they own."

Kirito smiled and lowered his guard as they swarmed him, slicing and dicing at him with countless sword skills. But it wouldn't make any difference in the end. The damage they dealt was miniscule in comparison to the defensive bonus offered by his gear, so the damage they inflicted was reduced to less than six hundred hp every ten seconds. He auto-regenerated eight hundred in the same time.

Let them work themselves ragged, he stared right back at Rosalia, who was looking more and more pale with each passing second.

"I don't get it!" One of the attackers yelled once they'd all exhausted themselves, "How is he still standing?"

"You want to know why?" Kirito asked them, and all of them recoiled as soon as they met his gaze, "I'm level 78. I've got 18500 hp, and my battle healing skill automatically regenerates 800 hp every ten seconds. Even as a group, you guys can't deal more than 600. This battle was over before it even began." From his inventory, he removed an item he'd been given when he accepted the job, "My client spent every penny he had on his corridor crystal and he'll get his money's worth. I've set it to the coordinates of the prison. Now, are you going to walk through on your own, or should I toss each and every one of your sorry asses through myself?!"

"You're bluffing!" Rosalia shouted, pointing her spear towards him at the same instant that the warp appeared in front of Kirito, "I'm still green, you know! If you hurt me, you'll go oran-"

"It wouldn't be the first time." Someone said, and Rosalia spun around. The figure behind her steps past her, and the tip of her spear grazed her.

Kirito swallowed nervously as his sister walked up to him with a grin.

"Hello brother." she said, drawing her sword, "I thought that since I'm always running into trouble when you're not around, I should probably meet up with you, right?"

"Y-You heard that...?" Kirito squeaked, "It was you listening at our…"

"Of course." She replied, drawing her sword, 'But we'll talk about that after we finish with this."

"...Got it." He sighed, already dreading what was going to happen once they were done.

"I'll take her; you deal with the rest." Leafa said, walking back towards Rosalia.

"I'm green! Are you really prepared to go orange over something like thi-" Rosalia tried to say, but she was cut off when Leafa's blade nicked her cheek. To her shock, the cursor above her head didn't change color.

"Surprised?" Leafa asked her stunned opponent. Behind her, Kirito had already swept up almost all of the thugs and sent them to prison, "You might want to look up."

Doing as she said, Rosalia looked up and saw that, to her horror, the cursor above her own head was orange.

"You should be more careful when you turn around." Leafa said, pointing to her ankle where she still had a very minor scratch, "After all, your weapon makes it almost too easy to accidentally cut someone. And if you harm someone…"

"You bitch!" Rosalia shouted, charging at Leafa, but in an instant, her spear was reduced to polygons from countless slashes. Sweeping her legs out from underneath her, Leafa dragged Rosalia back to the portal and, ignoring her captive's pleas and promises, she unceremoniously tossed her through. The corridor closed soon after.

Both of the beaters sheathed their swords without a care in the world while the others looked at them in amazement.

"Sorry about that." Kirito apologized, "I guess I was kinda using you as bait to lure her out."

"It's okay." Silica replied with a small smile, "You saved us, after all."

"Seriously, that was amazing!" Yuuki said with her eyes sparkling, "How'd you get so good!? I just star-" She stopped in the middle of her sentence, then continued immediately, "Any chance you guys can give me a few pointers?"

Kirito frowned slightly, guessing what she'd just stopped herself from saying, but he didn't say anything.

"Kirito?" Silica said, staring at Leafa, "Is this...?"

"My sister, yeah." He scratched the back of his head nervously, "This is Leafa, Leafa, this is Silica and Yuuki."

"Hey." she waved at them both, "But let's save the chit chat for back in town, shall we? Wanna warp back or walk?"

"I'm good either way." Kirito shrugged, "What about you two?"

"Let's walk!" Yuuki said eagerly.

"Yeah." Silica agreed, more at ease now that she had two bodyguards.

"Then let's move." Leafa said, "While we walk, I want to talk about what my idiot brother's been saying about me…"

Kirito just groaned.

* * *

Next time, we're meeting up with the RWBY crew again. Hopefully they'll be able to regain a 'semblance' of their ability from the series...

Now, onto a general writing status/update you should know going forward. I recently got a new job, and as such, my time spent writing has been reduced quite a bit. Between work and sleep, most of my writing is done on my day off with my beta, and while he does work on this story (I tend to prioritize stories he works on when I'm with him), it's also only one of many, so I can't guarantee I'll be working on it constantly. I understand that it's something you all want to see continued, and I vow to continue it, but while I'm adjusting to the new job and hours and such, I ask for your patience if the pace of the chapters slows back down. Thank you for understanding, and as always, I look forward to reading your reviews.


	13. Knight at the Club

Beacon 13

So, apparently, I didn't update this even though I thought for the longest time that I did? Very weird, but I suppose that's what I get for trying to upload chapters after working a double. Anyway, here's the chapter I should've had up in late January.

Disclaimer: I don't own SAO or RWBY.

* * *

"Alright!" Yang said, smashing her gauntlets together, "I'm feeling pumped up for this!"

"I should hope so." Blake sighed, rubbing her forehead, "You've spent the last two days dueling everyone in Beacon."

"Are we almost there?" Weiss frowned, opening her menu.

"Should be right up ahead." Yang answered, staring at her quest log, "It says the coliseum should be just up ahead."

"I can't believe you get to fight in a tournament for your skill!" Ruby groaned, "That's so cool!"

"You didn't even have to do anything, you just got it from the start." Yang replied, "You got lucky."

"Lucky? It's boring!" Ruby complained, then glanced back when she noticed that Wiess wasn't following after them. "Wiess?"

"Ruby, can you check your quest log?" She asked, staring at her menu.

"Why?" Ruby asked, opening her menu, "This is floor twenty-four. We cleared all the quests here a long time ago."

"Because it says that there's a quest NPC nearby." she answered, tapping the menu a few times. Though she couldn't see it, Ruby knew from experience that a cursor would have appeared to point her in the direction of the quest.

"It's not showing up for me." Blake said, closing her menu.

"Me either." Ruby shook her head.

"Only quest here is mine." Yang shrugged her shoulders, "I guess we know what that means."

"You're going to get your skill!" Ruby said eagerly.

"I'll go find out what it is." Weiss said, leaving the party and closing the menu, "I'll be back soon."

"Don't do anything stupid." Yang warned her, and she suppressed a snort.

"That's my line." Weiss replied, following the cursor deeper into the forest while Ruby and the rest continued on for Yang's quest. After zigzagging through a maze of trees, a large rock face came into view. Directly in front of her was an opening leading inwards, and strange markings were written across the edges.

Pacing in front of the opening was a man with short grey hair writing furiously on a clipboard. The mark above his head marked him as the quest giver.

"Hello." She said, and he snapped his head towards her.

"Finally!" He sighed in relief, "You're Weiss, correct? I need your assistance!"

The popup appeared in front of her asking if she accepted the quest, and sure enough, the reward listed was a new skill. Tapping the accept, the NPC once again sighed in relief.

"These ruins were forced up by a recent earthquake, the inscriptions here hold a strange power, but I can't seem to decipher them. The secret must be inside, but it's too dangerous for me to go inside. I need you to investigate and see if you can discover anything useful."

"Sure." She responded, and turned to leave. But shockingly, the path she'd taken was gone, replaced with an endless wall of trees. Turning back around, she saw that the quest giver had also disappeared. Walking forward to try and cut through the forest, she ran into a system warning. 'Invalid Path'.

"Great." She sighed, turning back towards the ruins and opening her inventory. Thankfully, she was fully stocked on potions, and her weapon was well maintained. She shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Probably.

Sending a message to the rest of her teammates, she took a deep breath and entered into the ruins. A loud noise, almost like a roar, echoed through the ruins as soon as she entered, and the entrance collapsed behind her, leaving her only one way out. Forward.

"Damn it." She muttered, drawing her rapier, but thankfully, whatever created the noise didn't seem to be anywhere nearby. However, that wasn't the case with the other monsters within. She could see several rock golems further down the hall, and their cursor had darkened to indicate she'd already aggroed them.

They didn't charge, however. Instead, they started hurling large rocks towards her, forcing her to dodge. The range between her and them was more than enough for her to dodge them all day, but getting closer would be a tall order.

She didn't have much of a choice, though, so she started sprinting down the hall. Several rocks zoomed past her, but one did manage to nearly hit her, and she had to destroy it with a sword skill 'Quadruple Pain'. The attack destroyed the rock without damaging her, but her sword's durability took a hit.

Still, on the positive side, she took out the first of the golems with another quadruple pain, then slid along the ground and let the second get hit by friendly fire from the remaining two. While they were in skill lag, she took out the first with 'Oblique' and the last one with 'Star Splash'.

"That wasn't too bad." She said to herself, until she spotted more of them further down the hall. Or rather, they spotted her. "Dammit." she groaned, dashing forward again.

* * *

"I'm starting to get worried…" Ruby said, staring at her friends list even while Yang was busy fighting in the tournament for her personal quest.

"Ruby, Weiss can handle herself." Blake told her, but she hadn't closed her own friend's list since they'd gotten Weiss' message, "She's not the type to doing anything stupid. If it gets dangerous, I'm sure she'll teleport out."

"I know you're right, but…" Ruby whispered nervously, but she didn't continue. Down in the arena, Yang's fist blasted open her opponent's guard, and with a brutal punch, the NPC fell and Yang moved on to the final battle.

"Bring it on." Yang smirked, sipping a potion while she waited for her final opponent, but she wasn't expecting for two girls to walk onto the field. However, rather than two character names, the name above both their heads were 'The Malachite Sisters'. One wore a strapless red dress and a pair of claws, while the other wore a similar white dress with bladed heels.

"You can do it, Yang!" She heard Ruby shout from the stands, and she nodded back to her. The gong sounded, and the girls leapt forward. At the same moment, their health bar finally appeared, 8 full bars above their heads.

"This is so unfair." She said, but she was still grinning. The boss's' first move was a synchronized attack from both sides, forcing her to jump backwards to avoid it. Then, while the boss was recovering from the skill lag, she blasted the one wearing red across the field. Despite the powerful hit, their combined hp barely decreased.

Her vision briefly turned red, indicating that she'd taken a hit from behind, and by the time she'd turned to counter, the other was already gone to help her sister up. Both of them split up and attacked her from both sides.

"This is frustrating." Yang growled, blocking their attacks, but being unable to counter, "If I can take down one of them, or if they'd just stay together, I could finish this."

But no matter how many times she knocked them away, their hp never took any really hit, and she wasn't able to get more than a few hits in before being attacked from behind.

"Damn it." She cursed, rolling out of the way to avoid a kick from her blind spot, but also allowing them to once again regroup. Her hp was starting to be worn down from the small hits, and for the third time, she shattered a restore crystal to make sure she didn't get killed from an unlucky hit.

But healing didn't help her situation much. If it was one on one, she could win handily, but their synchronized attacks were starting to wear down her supply of crystal. She only had three left, and potions wouldn't work too well against them. Conversely, she hadn't even managed to take away one full hp bar. There was almost no way she could win at the current pacing.

Slowly, she gripped the teleport crystal, considering her options, though the bosses gave her no time to think. This time, she charged towards the kicking girl to try and minimize the strength of her hits, though it wouldn't be long before they got her from behind again. Until then, she started wailing on her with straight power blows, chaining skills one after another before finally driving her fist into her chest. 'Embracer'. The piercing damage started to chip away at the bar of health, finally dropping it out of the first bar.

But as soon as it did, Yang was knocked aside by a tremendous blow to the side of the head, and she was immobilized by a ten second stun. The two of them rushed her together while she struggled to dodge despite the stun, and only narrowly avoided the red one's claws ripping stabbing her head.

"That was too close to ca-" She sighed, putting some distance between them before she noticed some of her own golden hair on the claw. Something in her snapped, and a small fire icon appeared on her status bar. "Damn you!" She shouted, punching with her full strength. They both raised their defenses, but her blow shattered the red girl's claws, and sent her flying backwards, stunned by the blow as well.

With it temporarily reduced to a one on one match, Yang let out all the anger she'd been holding in since the battle began and started laying into endlessly. The hp gauges dropped like a rock, and every hit gave the same stun penalty as the first. Halfway through the beating, the red one recovered and got a few good hits in with her remaining claw.

With each hit, the flame icon started glowing brighter, and each of her attacks dealt more and more damage until she'd brought them down to less than a quarter of their final bar of hp. The downside was that her gauntlets weren't meant to withstand that much power. The durability was fall much faster than it should, and she was down to at most two more hits before her only weapon was gone.

"One more hit!" Yang roared, punching them with all her strength, and her right gauntlet shattered completely on contact. But the girl in white was sent crashing to the ground, completely paralyzed from the hit. Turning on her heel, Yang's left gauntlet collided with the red one's face, dropped both the boss' hp and the durability to zero.

"Who's… Next!?" She shouted as the crowd cheered. The reward from her victory was a pair of replacement gauntlets called 'Ember Celica'.

* * *

After nearly twenty minutes of dodging the seemingly never ending string of golems, Weiss finally reached the back most chamber. Unlike every other part of the ruins, the room didn't have even a single mob guarding it.

"This is so not right..." She said, cautiously entering the room with her sword out. But as she crossed the room, nothing came forward to attack her. Several small suits of armor lined the path, and a single massive suit stood directly opposite her, but even when she was less than a foot away from it, nothing moved. A single ray of light shown through the top of the ruins, a single beam of light standing over what seemed to be a makeshift sundial.

Further into the back of the room, though, she saw an old stone tablet. Unlike the rest of the ruins, were showed next to no sign of wear, the tablet was extremely weathered, but there were still clear signs of writing on it.

Kneeling beside it, she tried to make out what was written, but it was all in the same writing as the rest. None of the words made any sense to her, if they were even words at all. But there wasn't any other way out of the room, and the path didn't branch off at all on the way here. The answer had to be here, and this tablet was the only thing that could be.

Gripping the sides of the tablet, she slowly lifted it up, and slipped it into her inventory.

However, as expected, removing the tablet activated a boobytrap. The small statues came to life, one after another, but thankfully, their attacks were all straightforward and easy to predict. Though their numbers and defenses made it a more difficult fight since she couldn't afford to take many hits. After a long, drawn out battle, she managed to take them down one by one until they were finally all gone.

Thankfully, the large suit of armor didn't spring to life this time, so she quickly ran out through the path she'd cleared earlier. Outside, the quest giver had returned, but there was still no way out of the area.

"What have you found?" He asked eagerly, and she passed him the tablet, "Intriguing..." he said, staring at it for several minutes, "But this doesn't solve our problem in the slightest. There must be some way to read it. Perhaps in the right light or the right location…"

He then returned the tablet and said nothing else. Sighing, she ran back in, and thankfully, none of the golems had respawned.

The obvious next step is to put the tablet onto the sundial, but it didn't take a genius to know what was going to happen afterwards. Quickly, she took stock of her inventory. Six healing crystals, a teleport, and about a dozen healing potions. But her armor had seen better days, and her sword was nearly used up.

It's not the worst case, but she didn't feel like risking it. Taking the crystal, she immediately said, "Teleport Algade." But nothing happened. The crystal didn't shatter, and she didn't teleport. "Of course, it can't be that easy."

With no other real option left, she set the tablet into the grove on the sundial. The shadow of the sundial reached the top of the tablet, and the markings it touched started to glow white. Slowly, the sundial started to turn, exposing more of the marks to the shadow.

While it did, though, she had to deal with another problem. Namely the oversized boss called 'The White Knight'.

In all honesty, the best thing would be if she didn't have to fight it. After a few hits, it was clear that her rapier wouldn't last, and fighting a boss was suicide without a weapon. Thankfully, there seemed to be a timer for the tablet, and its movements were slow, so if she could just survive until then-

Dodging another hit, she realized it wasn't even aiming at her. Instead, it cut through the top of the doorway, collapsing it and sealing them in. As frustrating as that was, complaining wouldn't help at all.

Careful to avoid the rubble, she kept dodging while she formulated a plan.

Stooping as she went, she picked up a few stones. Her 'Blade Throwing' skill was very below average, but at least she'd be able to test its defenses.

'I've got to hurry.' she said to herself, throwing stones at each of its joints to try and find a weak point where she could do some damage, but nearly all of them did next to no damage. Finally, when she was running out of rocks to throw, one managed to make a noticeable dent in its hp.

The only downside was that, among all the place she'd thrown, its eyes were certainly going to be the hardest to hit. And she didn't have much of a margin of error. If her sword broke before she finished this fight, she was basically screwed.

Upside, its hp wasn't as high as other bosses, so at least with it's not completely hopeless.

Dodging its swing, she ran up its sword and jabbed it in the eye. The damage was greater than the pebble, but it was still only a small hit on its large hp bar. The only saving grace was that it only had two bars instead of the usual half a dozen or more. In a boss raid, this fight would be child's play.

Though that was probably why it was meant to be a solo boss.

Landing, her eyes instinctively checked the durability, but she missed the boss kicking at her. The blow sent her flying backwards, nearly dropping her hp to zero with one hit. The hit stunned her, damaged her arm, and left her immobilized for several seconds. The weirdest part, though, was that for the first time since the game had started, she was bleeding.

"Damn it." She uttered softly, struggling to get her body under control while the debuffs wore off. The boss wasn't one to wait, though, and it swung its sword down on her. Closing her eyes to brace for the inevitable, the air around her chilled.

Suddenly, her body shot forward and out of the way of her execution. Opening her eyes, she was surrounded by strange symbols all around her. Glancing back at the tablet, she saw that it was glowing with golden light, the letters carved into it floating off as the symbols surrounding her.

The stun finally expired, Weiss pulled out a healing crystal, restored her hp to maximum, and she wiped the blood from her left eye. Charging towards it, the symbols circled her rapidly, collecting along the edge of her blade. The durability value of her sword suddenly turned red, and even after blocking an attack, it didn't decrease.

Her pulse quickened, jabbing at it again and again, they covered the blade. This time, the armor didn't deflect her hit, and its hp took a huge hit.

'I can do this.' she said to herself, dodging its counter easily with the boosted speed. It was almost like it was being slowed down. Her strongest skills couldn't be used before. Multi hit skills couldn't be focused to a single spot, so they would've caused too much damage her rapier. But now, with her sword getting enhanced by these symbols, she charged it with her most powerful skill. 'Star Splash'. The strongest combo available to her, the eight hits each took a huge chunk out of it, completely removing its arm. The counter was again easily avoided, and she went in for the kill. Six hit sword skill, Crucifixion.

Finally, with just a sliver of durability left on her sword, the giant fell over on top of the blocked doorway, flattening the rock before shattering into polygons.

For several moments, she sat on the floor and rested. The symbols had left her sword, once more circling around her, but the edge of her sword was dulled almost to the point of usability. Repairing it was going to be nearly impossible with its durability so low, but it least she was alive.

Getting back to her feet, she walked over to the sundial and picked up the tablet. The symbols returned to the tablet and it finally stopped glowing. A window opened, revealing she'd acquired her own skill 'Glyphs'.

The quest giver was waiting for her when she finally left the ruins, and to her eternal relief, the path out of the area had been restored.

"What have you found!?" He asked excitedly, and she handed him the tablets once again. Even though it hadn't visibly changed, his expression was entirely different. "This could be the greatest discovery of my career!" He said, looking at the tablet in wonder, "Thank you!"

The quest ended just like that, with no further fanfare. She might have been angry about that, if the reward she'd been given wasn't a new weapon. A much more powerful rapier called 'Myrtenaster'.

Half way down the path, the rest of her team were running towards her, weapons drawn.

"Weiss, you're okay!" Ruby said happily, hanging her massive 'Grimm Scythe' on her back as soon as they foudn her, "Did you get it? Did you get it?"

"Yeah, I got it." Weiss sighed, already getting a migraine, "I haven't a clue what it does, but my skill is called 'Glyphs'."

"Sounds weird." Yang shrugged, "But never mind all of that. Let's get back to town. Drinks are on me."

"Yeah!" Ruby said eagerly.

* * *

Far below the four, outside the walls of the floating castle, Leafa groaned in frustration, "Oh, it'll be easy." She muttered, "Just climb the walls. I did it during the beta test… When I get back, I'm going to kill him."

It might not be his fault, since she'd need to do this at some point in the future, but he didn't have to be so nonchalant about it. Just her luck that this stupid quest is hers.

Never mind that. That would have to wait until she made it up to floor 30.

Then this thing would finally be over.

* * *

Over the next few chapters, the RWBY crew will be getting their semblances and weapons, though don't count out Kirito and Leafa just yet. As always, reviews welcomed.


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